Coming Soon – DDC Clinic Family Heart Center

October 17, 2023

DDC Clinic is pleased to announce that our highly anticipated Family Heart Center will open in early 2024.

The new DDC Clinic Family Heart Center will be dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of genetic cardiac conditions in children and adults. Focusing on specialized care, research and education, the new facility will bring much-needed cardiology services to families in our area and also serve as a center for research on genetically-based heart diseases.

“This is a significant step forward in the growth of DDC Clinic and the scope of medical services we provide,” said Dr. Wang, DDC Clinic Medical Director. “Heart disease is a leading cause of death in our country, and the incidence of cardiogenetic disorders in the Amish community is very high. Many cardiogenetic diseases go undetected, putting lives at risk. Our new Family Heart Center will not only improve the health of our community; our research efforts will also benefit families and health professionals around the world.”

The new center will provide affordable testing, early diagnoses and onsite treatment for heart diseases such as cardiomyopathy and Long QT syndrome. Patients will receive the same high level of compassionate, comprehensive care for which our clinic is known. If needed, an entire family can be seen at the same appointment, and multiple members of a family can be tested on the same day.

Patients diagnosed with cardiogenetic disorders will receive a highly personalized care plan to meet their unique medical needs. In addition, patients will benefit from having access to pediatric and adult cardiologists at DDC Clinic, providing our patients with the convenience of highly specialized care close to home.

Located in the lower level of DDC Clinic, our Family Heart Center will house a waiting room and examination rooms. Equipped with new diagnostic medical equipment, the center will perform tests to detect heart disease such as EKG (electrocardiogram) tests and echocardiograms.

During its first year of operation, our center plans to develop a new diagnostic tool for the detection of cardiogenetic diseases. Known as the cardiogenetic awareness panel, or C-GAP, the panel will leverage the same technology as our genetic awareness panel (GAP) which is currently used to test for 220 genetic diseases found in the Amish community.

“CGAP will be an integral part of our new Family Heart Center,” said Dr. Baozhong Xin, DDC Clinic Research and Technical Director. “No family should be unaware of their risk. With CGAP, we’ll be able to use a patient’s blood sample to screen for a large number of cardiogenetic diseases all at the same time, leading to faster diagnoses, earlier treatments and better outcomes.”

Patient-oriented research has always been a major focus of DDC Clinic’s work, and it will also play a significant role at the Family Heart Center. Our in-house team will work with our pharmaceutical and academic research partners toward developing new treatments for heart disease. What we discover from our research efforts will be integrated into our patient care and shared with physicians and scientists around the world.

The DDC Clinic Family Heart Center has been funded in part by grants from the Elizabeth Severance Prentiss Foundation and the Cleveland Foundation. The Prentiss foundation awarded $900,000 to be disbursed over a 5-year period, while the Cleveland Foundation gave $75,000 toward support of the center’s first year.

“We’re so grateful to these foundations for their generous support and their investment in our future,” said Eli Miller, Executive Director of DDC Clinic. “They’ve made it possible for us to bring this new heart center to our community and provide lifesaving diagnostic services and medical care to at-risk families.”

DDC Clinic is planning to hold a special open house to celebrate the center’s opening in early 2024. Details will be released after the new year.