Meet Antonio Cabrera, MD, Chief of Cardiology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital

Meet Antonio Cabrera, MD, Chief of Cardiology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital 150 150 Abbie Miller

Antonio Cabrera, MD, FAAP, FAHA, FACC, FHFSA, is the division chief of cardiology and co-director of the Heart Center. He is a professor of pediatrics at The Ohio State University and currently holds the Nationwide George H. Dunlap Endowed Chair in Pediatric Cardiology. Previously, Dr. Cabrera served as the L. George Veasy Presidential Professor at the University of Utah and co-director of the Heart Center at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah.

What inspired you to pursue a career in pediatric cardiology?
Growing up in Guatemala, I knew that I wanted to be a physician, and to help babies and children. There, most pediatric issues are not cardiac – so I initially pursued infectious diseases. However, in a pediatric cardiology elective, I discovered that I have an aptitude for this area. I’ve been fortunate to have a series of mentors and teachers who encouraged me in this field, too.

Once I was committed to cardiology, I chose critical care and heart failure because of the science. I enjoyed making decisions with my team and the patient’s family and working together to improve outcomes.

What do you find rewarding or motivating about your work with heart failure and ventricular assist devices?

I like puzzles, especially ones that are considered by many to be “unsolvable.” I get exquisite delight in sorting out answers for diseases where others might say “there’s not much else to do.” When you have the right group of people and a clarity of purpose, you can help really sick patients to live when they might not have survived elsewhere.

This combination of teamwork and challenge is vitally important and motivating to me. It has also been wonderful to see the field grow from a small group of experts to now a group of training units that can do this work.

How do you approach mentorship and training the next generation of cardiac critical care experts?

I have been given a lot of peoples’ time – and I’m very grateful for that. Now it’s my turn.

I’ve learned a lot through traditional one-on-one mentorship based on commitment, follow through, honesty and agreement. This traditional style is vertical and follows a chain of command. It’s been useful and helped to make a lot of great doctors, but now I think there’s a shift in what newer trainees want and expect. Traditionally, the process was more mentor centric. Now I think it is more learner centric.

In mentoring relationships, a mutual understanding of why we are here and where we are going, a mutual affinity and aligned values form the basis for a strong and productive relationship. As a mentor, it’s my role to help young physicians and trainees develop independence and agency. I’m here to help prepare them to deal with complex problems, and the way we do that is by focusing on learning more than teaching.

What brought you to your current role at Nationwide Children’s?

My first visit to Columbus was in 2004, to then Columbus Children’s during my fellowship in Cleveland. When I came back to visit 19 years later nothing looks the same. In a lot of places, that’s not the case – 19, 20 years later some places are still very much the same internally and externally. This commitment to growth and change – continuous improvement – is grounded in the motto “everything matters.” And it’s apparent that this is not just something we say here – it’s what we do.

Some of the things that attracted me include the relatively flat hierarchy of the hospital, the fact that poverty and access to care and the hospital’s ability to have an impact are taken seriously, and the aspiration of clinical leadership to do so well that we are the best. Here, you have teams investing in breakthrough where others have not found success, and all of this is happening in a culture of purpose over pride.

What do you mean when you say you have a goal to “democratize knowledge and expand opportunity?” How do you think you (and your peers) can do this?

Guatemala has a 30% illiteracy rate. When people don’t have access to knowledge, it’s a different world. It limits their discernment, ability to make evidence-based decisions and improve their lives and health.

Here in the United States, we spend a lot of time generating knowledge, especially in medicine. But it still takes 17 years for evidence to become clinical reality. We need to close that gap, both in the United States and globally.

One way that we can help close the knowledge gap globally is through relationships, mentoring and information sharing. During my appointment at Texas Children’s, my team partnered with a hospital in Mexico City. We rounded with them weekly from a conference room and shared our experience. This knowledge sharing resulted in a decline of mortality from 15 to 5% at the partner hospital. And all it cost was our time. Consultants do this for money, but I firmly believe that by offering our time for free, we can make huge impacts to improve child health globally.

By giving our time, we can help people avoid making the same errors that have been made before.

About the author

Abbie (Roth) Miller, MWC, is a passionate communicator of science. As the manager, medical and science content, at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, she shares stories about innovative research and discovery with audiences ranging from parents to preeminent researchers and leaders. Before coming to Nationwide Children’s, Abbie used her communication skills to engage audiences with a wide variety of science topics. She is a Medical Writer Certified®, credentialed by the American Medical Writers Association.