Q&A with Dr. Michael Taylor- Children's National

Michael Taylor, MD, PhD, recently joined Children's National as chief of Cardiology. He answered a few questions as he prepared to come to DC for the role.

Q: Why did you decide to come to Children's National Heart Center?

A: This is a storied program. I want to work with this team to continue raising the Heart Center's profile as a world class referral destination for pediatric cardiac care and research.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish as chief of Cardiology at Children's National?

A: We have so many high-quality faculty, a great surgery program and are in a fantastic geographical location. I'm excited to continue growing the Children's National reputation as a global referral center for pediatric cardiac conditions of all kinds.

The team here also has specific expertise in some important, but very niche, areas like cardio-oncology and Kawasaki disease. There's a real opportunity to increase national and international awareness of our experts and their unique knowledge in these areas.

Q: Do you have specific clinical and research priorities for your own work?

A: In my own practice, I am particularly interested in the imaging of pediatric congenital and acquired heart conditions. First and foremost, I'm committed to advancing noninvasive multimodality imaging in the clinical care of all patients with heart conditions.

My research focuses on how advanced imaging techniques, especially magnetic resonance (MR), can contribute to our understanding of congenital heart disease and inherited cardiomyopathies. For example, I've worked on innovative protocols for using cardiac MR imaging in clinical surveillance and therapeutic trials of diseases that impact the heart muscle, like Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Q: How has your clinical and research interest in imaging impacted understanding of the heart?

A: I've worked to improve MR image clarity through pulse sequences and image reconstruction techniques, focused on making these imaging modalities more effective for the smallest and most vulnerable children with congenital heart disease.

Additionally, I'm proud to have helped cardiac MR evolve into the preferred imaging method for nearly every Duchenne muscular dystrophy cardiac therapy. Probably even more important, cardiac MR is also the standard for most Duchenne patient evaluations in drug trials. The benefit of making MR work for these evaluations is image accuracy and precision - you can collect the data you need with fewer patients than with other modalities like echocardiography.

Q: You have a doctorate in physics, which is a bit unusual for a pediatric cardiologist. How do you use it as part of clinical care and research?

A: That background set me up to perform imaging at a high level, I think. Having the actual knowledge of exactly how these modalities work has really helped me in research and clinically because it has helped me support and grow MR and computed tomography (CT) for cardiac specific imaging. We collect fantastic pictures now. Being able to speak the same technical language as engineers has helped me tremendously.

Q: What else are you excited to do here at Children's National?

A: Children's National already has a sophisticated cardiac imaging program, the best in the region and one of the best in the country. I'm looking forward to what the future holds with this talented team and great technology at our fingertips.

I'm also looking forward to the faculty development part of my job as chief. I really enjoy working with young and mid-level faculty, helping them to get involved in research, engaged in advocacy and building their careers in a well-rounded way that will set them up for future success.

Q: And finally, anything on your "to do" list now that you live in DC?

A: Whenever I've visited, I always made a point to walk up and down the National Mall and visit the Lincoln Memorial. I find it awe-inspiring no matter how many times I've been there. I'm planning to spend more time taking in all that DC has to offer.