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    Luke Burchill, M.B.B.S., Ph.D.

    New Possibilities come from the heart.

    ADVANCING DIAGNOSTICS AND TREATMENT FOR CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE

    Luke Burchill, M.B.B.S., Ph.D.

    Cardiologist, Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic, and Leader of Adult Congenital Heart Failure Care Pathway

    Rochester, Minnesota

    I am at a point in my life and career where I am acknowledging the heart / mind connection in my work. I think that your medical training actually teaches you to disconnect and to not tap into your heart during your clinical encounters. You’re taught early to toughen up, and in some ways it’s protective to do so. The problem is, is that if we really disconnect the heart and the mind, we start to lose our humanity, and that's what our patients and families really want when we're sitting down and speaking with them. So, it's a risk to open it up again and to communicate using that heart / mind connection. But the power of it is that I have better insights into not only what my patients are thinking, but what they're feeling. And we need to respond on both of those levels if we're going to provide care that meets them where they are.

    When we disconnect the mind from the heart, we begin to lose our humanity.

    “I am at a point in my life and career,” says Dr. Burchill, “where I am acknowledging the heart-mind connection in my work. Medical training actually teaches you to disconnect, to not tap into your heart during your clinical encounters. Unfortunately, when we disconnect the mind from the heart, we begin to lose our humanity.”

    And when it comes to treating the heart, Dr. Burchill understands humanity is what his patients are seeking. “I was taught early to toughen up, and in some ways it’s protective to do so. It’s a risk to open up and communicate using the heart-mind connection. But we need to respond on both levels if we’re going to provide care that meets our patients where they are.”

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    Dr. Burchill treats patients born with congenital heart disease, or heart-related birth defects. “Even though people might have had surgery or other interventions, we say they’re fixed, not cured,” he says. “They need lifelong care. And in adulthood we start to see new late onset complications — the most important of which is heart failure.”

    Unfortunately, heart failure guidelines are written for people with heart failure, not for adults with congenital heart disease. Similarly, adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) guidelines haven’t been written for people with heart failure. “We need to develop a completely new language to care for these young adults, often in the prime of their lives, who have been very resilient living with congenital heart disease,” he says, “but who now have their latest challenge, and that is heart failure.”

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    As one of the few specialists in the world qualified in both ACHD and heart failure, Dr. Burchill is leading the way towards creating that new language. As president of the International Society for Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Dr. Burchill is engaging with the ACHD community and an elite team of experts to build the world’s first heart failure pathway program designed by and for those living with ACHD. He describes it as, “envisioning a pathway that will serve as a beacon for those needing specialized heart failure care, so that it’s delivered at the right place and the right time, taking into account each person’s cardiac, mental, social, emotional, cultural, and spiritual needs.”

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    But Dr. Burchill is more than just a world-class physician; he is also a healer. “The origins of medicine recognize that our practice is both a science and an art,” he says. “The term physician often matches with the science. But we need to remember the physician was always intended to be a healer. That’s the art of what we do.”

    So, when Dr. Burchill sits down with a patient, the first thing he does is acknowledge there are two experts at the table. There’s the expert in managing the health condition. But there’s also the patient, who’s the expert of their own life. “And it’s together that we can build on the existing strengths to find solutions that work for the patients that we’re trying to deliver care to,” he adds.

    Being a healer comes naturally to Dr. Burchill. It’s part of his history. Growing up in the southern Australian town of Mooroopna, the Aboriginal word meaning “deep water,” Dr. Burchill learned to honor the traditions of his ancestors. One of those traditions is a unique way of listening, which he uses to help treat patients.

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    Radical listening is about connecting the heart and mind. It’s what we see, what we feel, what we can touch. There’s a responsibility that comes when we sit down and listen to someone else.”

    “First I listen to the heart,” he says, referring to his work with ACHD. “Then I listen from the heart.” He goes on to explain, “Listening from the heart is tapping into my indigenous history with something we call radical listening. Which goes back thousands of years. Radical listening is about connecting the heart and mind. It’s what we see, what we feel, what we can touch. There’s a responsibility that comes when we sit down and listen to someone else.”

    Honoring the traditions of his ancestors, Dr. Burchill uses radical listening to find clues to illnesses often previously missed. “Not a week goes by,” he says “where I don’t meet a patient who tells me a story in which they presented with symptoms and were turned away. They were told that it was in all their head. It’s often a story that’s been repeated over months and years. Sometimes a lifetime.”

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    Once Dr. Burchill makes a diagnosis, “Suddenly things crystallize for that individual and they have a moment where they say, ‘I’m not crazy.’ So many of my patients have unique conditions that are difficult to diagnose. And once finally diagnosed, they need unique care teams and, in some cases, unique surgeries,” he says. Ultimately, he adds, “For these patients, the treatment wasn’t simply the surgery. But the validation that the chest pain they’ve experienced since they were seven years old was real. And that we had a solution for it.”

    How does Dr. Burchill see the future unfolding? “Diagnostics have been critical for the evolution of congenital heart disease care. We use ultrasound, echocardiograms, CT coronary angiograms, and MRIs. But there is still a lot we don’t know about what leads to reduced heart function. So, the next stage is to continue developing new imaging modalities that get down to even the cellular level and those cellular mechanisms that contribute to heart failure,” he says.

    I think what drew me here was the history of breakthrough treatments, and the primary value that the needs of the patient come first.”

    Something else Dr. Burchill finds exciting is the importance of voice. “My colleagues have been looking at voice as its own biomarker. And based simply upon someone’s voice, determine with a high clinical suspicion that they’ve developed a new rhythm problem. Think of your voice as a fingerprint we can track over time. And which we can use to determine the overall health of your heart,” he says.

    “Growing up, I never imagined that I would ever have the privilege of working at Mayo Clinic, " he says. “I think what drew me here was the history of breakthrough treatments, and the primary value that the needs of the patient come first.” Needs Dr. Burchill meets by not just by hearing his patients, but actively listening to them. A trait instilled in him from his earliest days growing up in Mooroopna.

    Aside from being Australia’s first indigenous cardiologist, how would Dr. Burchill like to be remembered? “As someone who was kind,” he says. “But it’s important for me to clarify that kind and kindness actually speak to strength. Bringing kindness requires patience. It requires grace, it requires dignity, it requires strength. So, it’s kindness, but it’s kindness with strength. That’s what I’d like to be remembered for.”

    Luke Burchill, M.B.B.S., Ph.D.

    Dr. Luke Burchill is a cardiologist and a world-renowned expert in adult congenital heart disease. Originally from Australia, his career has taken him on a journey around the world. He moved to Minnesota with his family in 2021 to join the Mayo Clinic Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic team to lead development of the Mayo Clinic’s Adult Congenital Heart Failure Care Pathway.

    Learn more about Dr. Burchill
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    Congenital heart disease

    A disease involving problems with the heart's structure that exist since birth. There are many different types of congenital heart defects.

    Learn more about congenital heart disease
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    Heart failure

    Heart failure occurs when the heart muscle doesn't pump blood as well as it should, causing shortness of breath, and other internal symptoms.

    Learn more about heart failure
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    Mayo Clinic Department of Cardiovascular Medicine

    The Mayo Clinic Department of Cardiovascular Medicine is one of the largest and most comprehensive heart practices in the world.

    Learn more about the Mayo Clinic Department of Cardiovascular Medicine

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