The PEDAL Network is a multi-center pediatric cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) collaborative focused on standardized practices, collaborative research, and optimizing outcomes for children with heart disease worldwide.

Active Insights, Transformative Outcomes

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is the gold standard for measuring how well the heart and lungs work together during physical activity in children with congenital heart disease. Studies have shown that CPET provides reliable, objective data that reflects what matters most to patients and families: functional capacity in daily life.

The Challenge

Exercise testing shows strong clinical promise, but a lack of standardization creates barriers to multi-center research. Different laboratories use different methods, making it difficult to compare results across sites or use CPET data in large-scale studies. This methodological variation limits our ability to answer important research questions and develop evidence-based guidelines.

Why PEDAL Matters

In rare diseases like congenital heart disease, collaborative registries are essential for practice-changing research. Small cohorts at individual centers often lack the statistical power needed to detect meaningful differences or predict long-term outcomes. Multi-center data sharing enables the robust studies that drive clinical innovation.

Growing evidence links exercise capacity to quality of life outcomes, driving increased clinical emphasis on exercise testing.

PEDAL leverages established expertise in registry development and data coordination from Cardiac Networks United collaborators.

What PEDAL Offers

PEDAL addresses these challenges through three core objectives:

1. Standardize exercise testing practices across member centers to improve data comparability
2. Build a multi-center registry with uniform data definitions and quality standards
3. Provide validated functional outcome measures for use across congenital heart disease registries

About Us

We're a team that genuinely cares about making pediatric cardiology better for the kids and families we serve. Our group brings together people with different backgrounds and expertise all working toward the same goal: improving outcomes for children with heart conditions through better data and collaboration.

The Team

Network Oversight Leadership

S. Moli Yin, MD Boston Children's Hospital

William B. Orr, MD Washington University

Registry and Data Leadership

Jesse E. Hansen, MD University of Michigan

Danielle Burstein, MD University of Vermont

Science and Quality Leadership

Adam Powell, MD Cincinnati Children's Hospital

David A. White, PhD Children's Mercy Kansas City

Member Centers

Our member centers represent a diverse network of institutions—both large academic medical centers and smaller community hospitals—united by a shared commitment to advancing the care of individuals with congenital heart disease across the lifespan. Each center brings unique expertise and perspectives to our collaborative work, strengthening our collective ability to improve outcomes for patients and families.

	Institution	Place
	University of Vermont	Burlington, VT
	University of Michigan	Ann Arbor, MI
	Washington University	St. Louis, MO
	Cincinnati Children's Hospital	Cincinnati, OH
	Children's Mercy Kansas City	Kansas City, MO
	Boston Children's Hospital	Boston, MA

PEDAL Network

A multi-center exercise learning network dedicated to improving outcomes for individuals with congenital and pediatric-acquired heart disease.

Connect

Email: leadership@pedalnetwork.org

A collaborator in Cardiac Networks United

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