Ritu Sachdeva, MD, is the Medical Director of Cardiovascular Imaging Research Core (CIRC) at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Cardiology. Prior to joining the team at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Cardiology in July 2012, she served as the Director of Echocardiography and Director of Continuing Medical Education at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Sachdeva was also the recipient of the Betty Lowe endowed Chair in Pediatric Education from 2009-2012. She has practiced general cardiology, including inpatient and outpatient service, throughout her career. Her primary clinical focus has been echocardiography, including fetal echocardiography for prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease. She performs intra-procedural transesophageal echocardiograms to guide cardiac surgeries and interventions.

Although she spends a majority of her time focused on clinical work, Dr. Sachdeva has always been actively involved with research and education. In her role as the Medical Director of CIRC, she has been expanding ongoing research endeavors through collaborations with other centers. Her research activities relate to the use of echocardiography in defining morphometric predictors of outcomes in various cardiac lesions and the application of novel technologies in evaluating cardiac function. These novel technologies include Doppler tissue imaging, strain and strain-rate imaging and three-dimensional echocardiography. In addition, Dr. Sachdeva has established a program for non-invasive assessment of vascular function in pediatric patients. This includes assessment of carotid intima-medial thickness, brachial flow-mediated dilation, and arterial stiffness.

With the support of her team at CIRC, Dr. Sachdeva aims to provide high quality, non-invasive cardiac imaging support for pediatric investigators. She is deeply engaged with improving the quality of echocardiograms and optimizing resource utilization and is recognized as one of the national leaders in this field. She has led a large, multiphase, multicenter quality initiative for implementation of appropriate use criteria for improving utilization of transthoracic echocardiography for initial outpatient evaluation of pediatric patients. She continues to serve on important leadership committees of national academic societies, including the American College of Cardiology, American Society of Echocardiography and American Academy of Pediatrics.