Your Child's Appointment with the HAVE Program

Once your child is referred to the HAVE Program, we will start with a thorough evaluation. At this first appointment, we’ll gather detailed information about your child’s condition and health history that will help guide our treatment recommendations and next steps.

Evaluation and testing

As part of your child’s evaluation with the HAVE Program, we will schedule any testing your child may need. This testing is tailored to the individual patient and can include the following:

  • Blood pressure monitoring: During the clinic visit we will monitor your child's blood pressure. We may send your child home with a monitor that records blood pressure over a 24 hour period. This is called an ambulatory blood pressure monitor or ABPM.
  • Cardiac assessment: We may perform an echocardiogram (a cardiac ultrasound or echo), an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), or an exercise stress test to assess the structure and function of your child’s heart.
  • Cardiovascular risk assessment: This assessment provides critical information on overall cardiovascular health and may include:
  • A diet and exercise history
  • Measurements of weight, height and body mass index (BMI)
  • An ultrasound of the aorta (pulse wave velocity, or PWV) and the carotid arteries (carotid intima-media thickness, cIMT)
  • Blood work to check cholesterol and blood sugar

This comprehensive visit enables our team to acquire a complete assessment of your child’s cardiovascular health. We use this information to provide you, your child and your primary health care team with customized next steps and treatment recommendations tailored to your child’s unique needs. This may include:

  • Treatment recommendations for high blood pressure (or hypertension) whether it be a new diagnosis or persistent despite appropriate treatment
  • Additional referrals for other important findings detected during the visit
  • Suggested lifestyle changes and opportunities to promote a healthy lifestyle, including discussions around heart-healthy food choices and advice for making physical activity a part of your daily life.

We will tailor these treatment and prevention efforts to your child’s underlying medical condition. Our team works closely with your child’s primary care team to determine a follow-up plan as appropriate. This may include reassessing blood pressure or monitoring overall cardiovascular health by incorporating diet/exercise and other lifestyle changes.