Who Treats Pulmonary Hypertension

Finding the Right Doctor

When looking for a Doctor to treat your Pulmonary Hypertension there are many factors that you need to take into consideration. The first being, what is the right doctor to give you the proper care and treatment! Not all Pulmonologists or Cardiologists know enough about the disease to be qualified to treat the disease. You want to find an accredited PH Specialist who has all the correct knowledge and means to treat your current disease of Pulmonary Hypertension. 

Why not a Pulmonologist?

Not all pulmonologists are equipped to handle a Pulmonary Hypertension Patients current diagnosis.  Just because they treat lung diseases, does not mean they are qualified to treat Pulmonary Hypertension. Many have no idea how to even go about treating it, let alone knowing what the disease is.  They mainly specialize in the following diseases:

• Allergies         
• Asthama
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Cystic fibrosis
• Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
• Interstitial lung disease
• Sleep apnea and other sleep disorders
• Vocal cord dysfunction

Why not a Cardiologist

When you think of Cardiologist, you think heart condition! That is the main reason why you would not seek looking for a cardiologist to treat Pulmonary Hypertension. Although the disease does affect the right side of your heart, it mainly affects our lungs, before it affects our heart.  Here are the conditions in which a cardiologist treats:

• Coronary artery disease
• Heart Attack
• Abnormal heart rythms, arrhythmias
• Heart Failure
• Heart valve disease
• Heart muscle disease
• Pericardial disease
• Aorta disease
• Vascular disease

Where do you find the correct doctor

So, I mentioned not to seek out a regular Pulmonologist or Cardiologist, however; there are MANY that are PH Specialists that can assist. Its just a matter of finding the correct one to treat you.  The best place to do that is here: https://phassociation.org/patients/doctorswhotreatph/ although this is not a complete list of all the doctors that are trained to treat PH, this is the most accurate listing you will find.  Another great way is to ask another PH Patient for recommendations on who they see.

Find a Pulmonary Hypertension Care Center

There are two types of Centers that are accredited to helping those with Pulmonary Hypertension. One is Center of Comprehensive Care and the other is Regional Clinical Program.

PHA board of Directors and the Scientific Leadership Council worked very hard at getting centers accredited to get the best care possible for PH Patients around the States.

 To find an Adult PHCC Center near you please visit this link: https://phassociation.org/phcarecenters/accredited-centers/

For Pediatric PHCC please visit this link: https://phassociation.org/phcarecenters/peds/

Thanks for checking in today, stay tuned for tomorrows blog where I talk about treatments 😊💜