Dr. Balu Vaidyanathan

Dr. Balu Vaidyanathan, Clinical Professor of Paediatric Cardiology & Head of Fetal Cardiology Division at Amrita Hospital, Kochi. After completing his MD (Paediatrics) from AIIMS, New Delhi, he pursued his DM Cardiology training from SCTIMST, Trivandrum. He was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Fellowship in Fetal Cardiology from the Evelina Children’s Hospital, London in 2007. After his training, he established a dedicated Fetal Cardiology Division at Amrita Hospital in 2008. He has about 80 research publications and around 450 professional lectures to his credit. His primary areas of interest include fetal cardiology, neonatal congenital heart disease and epidemiological research in fetal and paediatric Cardiology.

• More than 25 years’ experience in paediatric cardiology including outpatient evaluation and echocardiography, cardiac catheterization and interventions and peri-operative care of > 25,000 patients with CHD.
• More than 15 years’ experience in fetal cardiology with around 10,000 fetal echo studies
• Initiated the fetal cardiology division at Amrita Hospita, Kochi in 2008. Supervised the planned perinatal care of > 800 pregnancies with critical heart defects in the fetus at Amrita Hospital, Kochi.
• Lead the team which performed the first fetal cardiac intervention (in utero aortic valve dilatation) in the state of Kerala in 2015. Initiated the program for in-utero treatment for fetal arrhythmias at Amrita Hospital, Kochi ( > 100 cases)

• Awarded the Best Doctor in private sector award in 2022 by the Kairali TV channel for contributions towards training doctors in fetal heart screening in Kerala.
• Official training coordinator for Government of Kerala and National Health Mission (NHM) Kerala in the foetal heart training program for Obstetricians and Radiologists.
• National coordinator, Foetal Cardiology working groups of Society of Foetal Medicine of India and Paediatric Cardiology society of India.
• Trainer in the Foetal heart educational programs of the International society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (ISUOG).
• Member of the Global Foetal Heart Focus group of Voluson GE, Austria. Global trainer for Voluson GE in 3D/4D foetal echocardiography - ASEAN and South Asia segments.
• Invited speaker in major international meetings like world congress of paediatric cardiology (2013,2023) and fetal medicine foundation world congress (2019)