Anesthesiology

The department of anesthesiology at the MHI includes 11 anesthesiologists. The team's activities are centred around four operating rooms equipped with echocardiography machines but also in the electrophysiology and interventional cardiology laboratories. Roughly 2,000 surgical procedures are carried out each year. Half of the anesthesiologists are certified in echocardiography by the National Board of Echocardiography. Research activities are led by two researchers-clinicians supported by the Fonds de recherche en santé du Québec and by a PhD researcher.

The anesthesiology department offers a one-year fellowship. Candidates are expected to be available for on-call duty in the hospital's surgical intensive care unit. The program includes three components:

1. Training in cardiac anesthesiology
   
   This component is aimed at broadening knowledge of pre-operative assessment principles, induction techniques in cardiac anesthesiology, hemodynamic particularities of various cardiac pathologies, principles of extracorporeal circulation, blood preservation techniques and transfusion indications, and resuscitation medications. This expertise is developed through daily exposure to patients in operating rooms.
   
   
2. Training in perioperative echography
   
   The objectives of the training program in perioperative echography are available on the following Web site: www.anesth.umontreal.ca/MMD6500. At the end of the fellowship, the candidate should be able to autonomously perform transesophageal echocardiograms in the operating room and should be qualified to write the Perioperative Transeophageal Echocardiography examination given by the National Board of Echocardiography. The candidate should also be able to perform at least 300 transesophageal echocardiograms (advanced level) and to review at least 50 echocardiograms from the examination bank.
   
   
3. Research training
   
   During their training, candidates are expected to integrate into the team's research activities and to publish at least one research article or a review of existing literature on cardiac anesthesiology.
   

To obtain funding, candidates are advised to apply for grants from recognized agencies. The anesthesiology department at the MHI does provide scholarships; however, a limited number of scholarships are available and they are awarded on a competitive basis.