Education: at the heart of the Institute’s mission

Since its founding in 1954, the Montreal Heart Institute has been among the largest teaching centres for cardiovascular health in Quebec and Canada. Heart disease is the number one cause of death worldwide, and in the aim of saving as many lives as possible, the Institute sees the acquisition and sharing of knowledge as the cornerstones of high-quality specialized care, here and around the world.

Year after year, the Institute’s internationally renowned fellowship program welcomes over a dozen cardiologists, cardiac surgeons and other foreign medical specialists who wish to hone their skills in cardiovascular care. In addition to being an unparalleled personal experience for these health professionals, this complementary training program allows them to make a difference in the lives of the 68,000 patients who walk through the doors of the Institute each year.

The fellowship program

Through its affiliation with Université de Montréal, the Institute has the status of a teaching hospital. This means that teaching is an integral part of the daily routines of its healthcare teams. Its reputation for teaching and specialization in the specific field of heart disease is a testament to the extremely high quality of its teaching. International specialists have the privilege of being surrounded by teachers at the top of their field, and have access to equipment at the very cutting edge of technology.

Thanks to its volume of clinical activity, the variety of pathologies encountered, access to advanced diagnostic methods, the teaching of precision medicine and the opportunity to collaborate on research projects, the Institute is a teaching hospital of choice for physicians wishing to enrich their knowledge.

Known as “fellows”, these specialists, at the Institute for a period of 12 to 24 months, acquire specialized training in a specific area. Since the creation of the fellowship program in 1954, more than 500 fellows have been rigorously selected to be trained in one of 10 possible specialities:

• Cardiac anesthesiology
• Clinical cardiology
• Adult congenital heart disease
• Cardiac surgery
• Echocardiography
• Electrophysiology
• Advanced heart failure and heart transplantation
• Cardiac prevention and rehabilitation
• Cardiac magnetic resonance
• Surgical intensive care

At the Institute, the patient is the priority

The presence of fellows allows the Institute to improve the quality and accessibility of the ultra specialized care it provides to patients in Quebec and people suffering from heart disease on a global scale.

Once their stay at the Institute is complete, fellows return to their home country where they put the expertise they acquired at the Institute into practice, thereby contributing to sharing best practices and continually improving patient care. The bonds they form with the Institute’s teams can also lead to the development of partnerships with different centres around the world, and the creation of projects focused on cooperation and the exchange of ideas.

Continuing to invest in knowledge

With the Foundation’s support, the Montreal Heart Institute has set up a scholarship program to ensure the perpetuity of its fellowship program and support the specialists who come from abroad to develop their expertise within its walls.

Thanks to the generous contributions of its donors, the Institute has been able to invest in teaching and share knowledge about cardiology on an international scale, for the greater benefit of patients.

Discover more projects made possible thanks to the support of generous donors.

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