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ON ON1 SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2015 TORONTO STAR⎮M13
PETER MUNK CARDIAC CENTRE
> FELLOWSHIP
Making a global impact
CAMILLA CORNELL care. They are treated and then trans-
ferred back to their family doctors.” If
SPECIAL TO THE STAR every cardiac patient received specialized
care the numbers would be overwhelm-
They come from all over the world. ing, he says, “but Canada is very efficient
“We have fellows from Australia, the at managing patients.”
U.K., Israel, Argentina, Chile, Saudi Ara- Greig’s project will use a similar ap-
bia and all over Canada,” says Michael proach — training doctors in three clinics
McDonald, a staff physician with the Pe- serving poorer areas to follow guidelines
ter Munk Cardiac Centre. “You see a wide on performing checkups to detect ad-
spectrum of illness and patient popula- vanced cardiac failure patients. Those pa-
tions you wouldn’t see at many of the tients can then be referred on to special-
medium-sized Canadian centres or even ists.
in the many United States training pro-
grams,” he says. Dominic Parry, cardiac surgeon
Hamilton General Hospital,
What’s more, PMCC offers fellowships Hamilton
in 10 different disciplines. The aim is to Parry couldn’t sleep. It was the night be-
develop skills that can be passed on to fore a major surgery on a patient in his
trainees in the fellows’ countries of ori- 40s.
gin, improving care around the world.
Here’s what several of its past fellows “He had a bad case of endocarditis — an
gained. infection of the heart valve,” Parry recalls.
“I spent the night before going through
Finn Gustafsson, medical director my notes from my fellowship at the Peter
of cardiac transplantation Munk Cardiac Centre. I kept a thorough
Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, diary including pictures of all the tech-
Denmark niques and tips.” The patient is now doing
Gustafsson credits the sheer volume of well.
often-complex heart disease cases he saw
in Toronto, as well as the expertise he Part of the credit for the life-saving op-
picked up from its doctors, with rounding eration goes to the “incredible team” in
out his training and enabling him to catch Hamilton, says Parry. But he also attri-
difficult-to-diagnose cases. butes the experience and teaching he re-
ceived during a two-year fellowship with
In addition, he says, “I learned a lot PMCC. Parry chose PMCC in part for its
about how to manage patients, especially “well-deserved worldwide reputation for
with the immune-suppression of heart excellence.”
transplant patients.” He “copied exactly”
from PMCC the role of heart transplant Luke Burchill, assistant professor,
co-ordinators — highly trained nurses medicine and cardiologist
who follow patients through the entire Knight Cardiovascular Institute,
evaluation procedure and through pre- Oregon Health & Science University,
operative and post-operative care. Portland, Ore.
Burchill serves a group of patients who
Introducing co-ordinators and other or- have often been overlooked — adults
ganizational techniques has helped the born with a heart abnormality.
heart transplant program at Rigshospita-
let run more smoothly and efficiently, he While a fellow at PMCC from 2009-12,
says. Burchill studied adult congenital heart
disease and heart failure. The draw: The
Douglas Greig, co-ordinator centre’s congenital cardiac care program
of clinical cardiology and is one of the oldest and largest in the
staff doctor, heart failure program world.
Pontifical Catholic University
of Chile “They’re really world leaders in provid-
After completing a fellowship at PMCC ing such care,” he says.
in 2011, Greig is starting a pilot project in
Chile he says is strongly influenced by With the help of Heather Ross, director
what he saw in Canada. of PMCC’s heart transplant program,
Burchill has been studying how to better
“Canada has a good model because you understand and evaluate risk prior to
have a lot of nonspecialized doctors who transplant in adult congenital heart dis-
assess patients and transfer them to spe- ease patients whose hearts are failing.
cialized centres (such as PMCC) for acute
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More healthcare stories with happier endings.
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