Kurt Bjorkman, MD

As a pediatric cardiologist, I primarily treat children's pulmonary hypertension in addition to other congenital and acquired heart disease. In caring for children with complex heart disease, it’s essential for me to have a relationship with the family that allows them to feel comfortable sharing their concerns. I value open, straightforward communication as this approach helps ensure I don’t miss any important details about my patients and also assists me in helping families learn what they need to know about their child's health.

Being a pediatric cardiologist allows me to build meaningful long-term relationships with families while managing some of the most complex medical conditions at Cincinnati Children’s. It is the complex physiology of these diseases and these relationships with my patients that has drawn me to this area of medicine that I love so much.

Throughout my career, I have realized that few things are more important to a child's health than their family and the team effort between doctor and patient. As a clinician, my role is to be a medical expert while counting on patients and families to be experts on their child. My goal is to equip families with as much knowledge about the heart as possible to increase their understanding of heart disease and improve the care I provide.

Pediatric cardiology is also a field that is constantly improving and advancing. As I am continually striving to make patient care better, being active in medical research allows me to improve care for my patients and others around the world. My research focus is to help improve how we look at and assess cardiac disease in both acute and long-term settings.

My greatest honor is helping others learn: medical students, residents, fellows and most of all, families. I’m honored to have my efforts recognized by receiving and being nominated for prestigious awards, including:

• Senior Resident Teaching Award, Yale Pediatrics (2018)
• Fellow Teaching Award, University of Iowa Department of Pediatrics (2020, 2021 and 2022)
• Excellence in Clinical Teaching Nominee, University of Iowa (2021, 2022)

When I’m not at work, I love being outside with my wife, children and our dogs. We like to hike, fish and do competitive dog sports with our golden retriever.