Michael Gaies, MD, MPH, MS

As a pediatric cardiologist, I treat children with pediatric and congenital heart disease — especially children with heart disease who require hospitalization. I believe that each patient and family deserve to be treated with dignity, in accordance with their wishes and values, and with consideration of both short- and long-term consequences of the decisions we make together.

Helping people is what drove me to pediatrics. In medical school, one of my mentors said it best: "I chose pediatrics because I knew it would never be difficult to muster the energy and focus necessary to take care of someone's child."

The physiology of congenital heart disease captivated me, and I loved the idea of taking care of children with life-threatening diseases and the potential to live long, happy, healthy lives because of the work of our team.

I’m privileged to be your child's physician, and I will care for them like they are the most important patient in the hospital. The best outcomes are achieved when patients and families are partners with physicians, nurses and other health professionals. Never hesitate to ask questions or share observations.

I also believe in continuous quality improvement in real-time. Our medical team must be accountable and reflective so that every patient we care for provides "teachable moments" for a better future.

My research focuses on understanding how to improve care for children with cardiovascular disease around the world. I started and led an organization, PC4, (Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium) that helps hospitals understand how they are performing in caring for children with heart disease and provides a learning community for hospitals to improve by studying one another's practices. I believe that the road to improvement comes through constantly measuring our performance, detecting areas where we can be stronger and learning from the best performing hospitals.

We received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to start our quality improvement collaborative, PC4, which turned into a decade's worth of work. I'm particularly proud of the dedication and success of the hundreds of people who contributed to the organization and demonstrated that our approach could improve and save lives.

The most important thing in the world to me is my wife and two daughters, Taylor and Abigail. We all love to travel and eat together; food is a major part of our family's life! Aside from them, I’m an admitted golf addict — I love to play it, watch it and buy equipment and other golf knick-knacks. Much to my family's embarrassment, I will sometimes stand in our house or out in public practicing my golf swing.