Dr. Ashok Kakadekar

Dr. Ashok Kakadekar is a Cardiologist at BC Children’s Hospital. Dr. Kakadekar holds extensive expertise both nationally and internationally. He previously worked as a Staff Cardiologist (and was Division Head of the Pediatric Cardiology department) at the Royal University Hospital in Saskatchewan. He has also worked at hospitals across the United Kingdom and India.

A recognized leader in Canada’s child cardiology community, Dr. Kakadekar played a key role in the development of CHAMPS Camp (Children’s Healthy Heart Monitoring Program in Saskatchewan), a one-week day camp for children with congenital heart disease. This unique initiative brought together patients, parents, pediatric cardiologists, and research specialists from cardiovascular physiology, growth and development, and child psychology fields across the University of Saskatchewan (and Regina) campus. The first CHAMPS Camp was held in 2014 and has run every pandemic-free year since.

Dr. Kakadekar was also a driving force behind the introduction of echo sonography and fetal cardiology to Saskatchewan by establishing the first Pediatric Echo technician positions at Royal University Hospital. This initiative has not only allowed care professionals to move patients between network sites for surgery, but it has also eliminated needless travel and transfers.

Since moving to the UBC Department of Pediatrics (Division of Cardiology) in 2018, Dr. Kakadekar has contributed his skills to supporting a busy clinical service in both general and fetal cardiology. He established and is the Medical Lead for a pediatric cardiology partnership service in Fraser Health Authority, and has recently expanded the program from Surrey to Abbotsford, as well.

As an active WCCHN community member, Dr. Kakadekar spent nearly 14 years serving on both the Clinical Operations Committee and the Database Steering Committee.