Ionela Iacobas, MD

The treatments listed are available to all our patients, not only performed by me personally, but by our dedicated vascular anomalies medical team. We are managing patients from 0-21y old. I have developed a passion for vascular anomalies since my Pediatric Hematology-Oncology fellowship days at Baylor College of Medicine. Graduated in 2010 and moved to New Jersey where I started a Pediatric Multidisciplinary Vascular Anomalies Clinic. In 2014, I returned to Houston to Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) to participate in the Vascular Anomalies Center here and since February 2017 became the Medical Director of the team. Encountered many patients with HHT during my clinical hours. Many were referred to hematology for nosebleeds and found out years later to have HHT when complications appeared. Others were seen by multiple specialties at random periods of time without having a "medical home". In the Vascular Anomalies Center at TCH now, we are managing these patients in a coordinated approach, with multidisciplinary clinic visits where families see during same day hematology, ENT, interventional radiology, genetics and, if needed, plastic surgery. We receive referrals from our genetics colleagues for children of parents newly diagnosed with HHT, from pulmonology - children managed for pulmonary hypertension that were identified as having HHT-specific gene mutations years before classic symptoms develop, from neurosurgery - children with brain AVMs that need screening and monitoring for other HHT-specific complications, etc. Working in a medical team with vascular anomalies expertise and dedicated to the care of patients with HHT made a significant difference in the care and quality of life of our patients. Structured a dedicated HHT Center where I am the Associate Director and Dr Amir Pezeshkmehr (IR) is the Director of the Center and in 2023 received the distinguished designation of HHT Center of Excellence!