Fetal Cardiology Program

The UCLA Fetal Cardiology Program has offered world class care for over 40 years and ranked top 10 in the nation for over 30 years at the UCLA medical campus and UCLA Health enterprise. The program utilizes state-of-the-art ultrasound technology combined with expert physician and sonographer staffing, performed in a modern environment with an emphasis on personalized and compassionate care for all patients. 

The program is led by Gary M Satou, MD FASE FAHA, Director, and includes Sonia Voleti MD and Gigi Ganieva MD. The senior sonographer, Karen Ambrowitz, is a Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer (RDMS) with formal certification in Fetal Echocardiography, and the program continues to maintain long-standing accreditation by the IAC (Intersocietal Accreditation Commission) and AIUM (American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine). Together, the program performs over 1100 fetal echocardiograms per year and provides each patient and their family the time and care they require. This includes performing and consulting on normal echocardiograms to provide reassurance for the low-risk patient as well as extremely complex and high-risk fetal and maternal cardiac disorder pregnancies that can only be cared for at an advanced cardiac center like UCLA.  

At UCLA, the Fetal Cardiology Program provides rapid diagnosis and education on even the most complex congenital heart diseases. Even before birth, parents have access to physician consults in the nationally ranked UCLA Congenital Heart Surgery Program led by, Glen Van Arsdell, MD, internationally acclaimed and master surgeon and Daniel Levi, MD, Catheter based Interventional Cardiology Program Director.  

The program benefits from the UCLA Children’s Heart Center, UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, and Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center all existing together at one campus, located in Westwood, California. This enables seamless transition of care for those families affected by congenital heart disease that require specialty prenatal care and antenatal testing, delivery planning, and post-natal intervention including newborn open-heart surgery, catheter-based interventions, and heart transplantation. In addition, UCLA has world class OBGYN and MFM (High Risk OBGYN) faculty and programs covering all areas of perinatal care, along with the highest-level NICU, Pediatric Cardiac ICU and Pediatric ICU environments to achieve and optimize excellent outcomes and long-term well-being for the child and family. 

The UCLA Fetal Cardiology Program has one of the oldest Adult Congenital Heart Disease programs in the country, which is unique in that all specialists caring for patients from the fetus to the older adult with congenital heart disease work as one large, coordinated team at the same location.

Many different non-physician team members, fetal care coordinators, nurses, nurse practitioners and social workers, make up the Fetal Cardiology Program at UCLA in support of patient families. Family services include housing guidance, consultations with specialty teams or services, and in person or video tours of the NICU and Pediatric Cardiac ICU. Finally, many physicians and nurses are actively involved in teaching and education for multiple levels of trainees throughout the health enterprise (David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA School of Nursing, UCLA Health hospitals) and conduct various forms of clinical or fundamental scientific research.

In the News

• The UCLA Fetal Cardiology Program has received accreditation from the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine for fetal echocardiography which is the use of ultrasound to screen for fetal heart problems in pregnant patients. Read more

Upcoming Event

15th Annual Fetal Echocardiography Symposium. Date, November 5-8, 2026.