Expanding Multidisciplinary Care for High-Risk Pregnancy and Heart Health

We often see patients arrive at our door carrying two diagnoses at once: a pregnancy they hoped for and a heart that needs extra watching. According to UC Davis Health, that is exactly the population their newly expanded Pregnancy Heart Team is built around, bringing together cardiology, maternal-fetal medicine, adult congenital heart disease and advanced heart failure specialists under one coordinated plan from preconception through the postpartum year.

Why this team exists, and why it matters now

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death during pregnancy, and the rates of cardiovascular complications in expectant patients continue to climb. Layer onto that the long tail we now recognize: a pregnancy complicated by gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension or preeclampsia is not just a nine-month event, it is a marker of lifelong cardiovascular risk that deserves structured follow-up. Multidisciplinary pregnancy heart teams are no longer a nice-to-have, they are the model that recent clinical practice guidelines from the European Society of Cardiology specifically call for when managing these patients.

The expanded UC Davis model pulls specialists from the Women's Cardiovascular Medicine Program, Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Advanced Heart Failure and Maternal-Fetal Medicine into a single workflow. The stated goals are practical: identify cardiovascular risk early, streamline referrals, coordinate maternal cardiac care, deliver evidence-based treatment, and keep following the patient after delivery, when so many cardiac events actually surface.

What the team actually does for you

If you are referred, you are not bouncing between three separate clinics with three separate charts. The team creates a unified care plan, which means your cardiologist and your maternal-fetal medicine specialist are literally in the same room deciding on the same day whether to adjust a medication, schedule an echo, or plan for delivery timing. That coordination is what Amparo C. Villablanca, who directs the Women's Cardiovascular Medicine Program and co-leads the team, described as bringing the expertise of multiple specialists into a more integrated model, so that patients benefit from coordinated rather than fragmented care. Herman Hedriana, director of Maternal Fetal Medicine and the team's other co-leader, framed it the same way: pregnancy is a period of tremendous physiologic and cardiometabolic demand, and even routine decisions can require careful coordination across multiple specialties, which is precisely what the unified plan is designed to support.

The roster is substantial. Cardiovascular Medicine is represented by Radhika Nandur Bukkapatnam, Imo Ebong and Sandhya Venugopal. Maternal-Fetal Medicine adds Nina Boe, Zahabiya Chithiwala, Nancy Field, Carolyn Reyes, Krishna Singh, Leanna Sudhof and Hedriana himself. Beyond direct patient care, the group will train residents and fellows across obstetrics, maternal-fetal medicine and cardiovascular medicine, and will track maternal outcomes to refine the model over time.

What to watch, and what to ask

For patients outside Sacramento, the structural question is how much of this you can access remotely through telehealth, shared imaging review and collaborative planning with your local OB and cardiologist. For patients anywhere, the practical shift is this: cardiac risk in pregnancy is now treated as a continuum, not a delivery-day concern.

A concrete next question to bring to your own provider: given my cardiac history (or my history of gestational hypertension, preeclampsia or gestational diabetes), can we build a written coordinated plan with cardiology and maternal-fetal medicine before conception or early in pregnancy, rather than reacting if something changes?