Javier Hernando Gonzalez MD

Javier Hernando Gonzalez is a pediatric cardiologist at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. He diagnoses and treats children and adults with congenital heart disease and children with acquired heart disease, creating personalized treatment plans that may involve surgeries and interventions.

He was the first pediatric congenital cardiologist to be certified to perform and interpret Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (CT) in the United States in 2009 and remains one of the very few with the certification and experience in virtual dissections by CT and 3D echocardiography in the country.

He knew that he wanted to become a doctor at a very young age because he was fascinated with the human body. He finds the heart to be an amazing and intricate organ and he like children, so pediatric cardiology was a great fit for him. He continued with cardiac imaging at a time when they were starting to discover the benefits of 3D echocardiography in cardiac interventions and were just starting to create 3D renderings of intracardiac anatomy by a computer.

In cardiac imaging, he was trained by the most recognized mentors in those fields: Drs. Hlavacek and Schoepf for CT and by Dr. Shirali in 3D echocardiography. For two years, he was also awarded a National Institute of Health grant to perform research in these fields before joining the Congenital Heart Institute of Florida, where he became the Director of Cardiovascular Imaging.