George Van Hare, MD
Director, Division of Pediatric Cardiology
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
- Dr. Van Hare has a long-standing interest in using electrophysiology as a tool to diagnose and treat irregular heartbeats, arrhythmia’s, in children.
- Dr. Van Hare’s primary research focus is on children with heart rhythm disorders.
- Dr. Van Hare is the Louis Larrick Ward Chair in Pediatric Cardiology at St. Louis Children’s Hospital (SLCH) and Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM).
- He is a fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Cardiology. He is president of the Pediatric & Congenital Electrophysiology Society.
Notable Quotes from Dr. Van Hare:
Dr. Van Hare on reports linking ADHD medication to heart failure
“Our worries have always been that in children who have preexisting heart conditions that the incidence of dangerous cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death might potentially be higher. That is one of the worries that we’ve had. But in fact there is no data to suggest that the risk has actually increased. We just have worries and concerns but really no data at this point.”
Dr. Van Hare on universal heart screening for children on ADHD medication
“The controversy is whether performing an EKG to a child who otherwise has no suspicion of heart disease is a good idea. In my opinion, an EKG is an excellent test in a child who is suspected of having heart disease based on some positive findings in the family history, some physical finding, some concern about symptoms the patient might have had like palpitations or something like that. But as a public health maneuver for a child whohas no suspicion of heart disease, it’s actually quite a bad test. And the reason for that has to do with a very high rate of false negative tests.”