Congenital Cardiologists
Dr. Alonso-Gonzalez is the current director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease program at Toronto General Hospital. He completed his specialist cardiology training in Badajoz and Madrid, Spain, and his ACHD fellowship at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, UK, between 2009 and 2011. In 2011, he was appointed as staff cardiologist in Badajoz, Spain, where he was the Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Unit. In 2012, he moved to the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, UK, as Consultant Cardiologist in ACHD and Pulmonary Hypertension. He was the Director of the ACHD inpatient services and established the ACHD Heart Failure Unit. He joined the Toronto ACHD Unit in 2018 where he is also the Fellowship director.
Dr. Cifra is leading the Lifestyle Medicine Program within the Adult Congenital Heart Disease program at Toronto General Hospital.
She completed her residency in Sports Medicine, focusing her training in cardiology and exercise physiology in Rome. In 2012, she started a research fellowship in the Echocardiography Laboratory in the Labatt Family Heart Centre where she developed the Exercise Stress Echocardiography Program. Since 2016 Dr. Cifra has been leading the Exercise Medicine Program at SickKids, a program that focus on healthy lifestyle plan and exercise recommendation for children with heart disease. The program has extended beyond cardiac patients to include patients who are on active maintenance therapy or who have completed therapy for cancer.
Dr. Jack Colman graduated in Medicine from the University of Toronto in 1967 and trained in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at Mc Gill University (Montreal, Canada). He returned to Toronto in 1973 to a position as a staff cardiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital, which remains his primary appointment. Dr. Colman joined the Adult Congenital Heart Disease program at Toronto General Hospital (the Toronto Congenital Cardiac Centre for Adults) in 1988. He has been involved in clinical and research programs in pregnancy and heart disease since 1989. He is a past-president of the International Society for Adult Congenital Heart Disease, and also served for many years on the Medical Advisory Board of the Canadian Marfan Association.
Danielle Massarella trained in pediatric cardiology at Case Western Reserve University (Ohio, USA) before pursuing her fellowship in adult congenital cardiology at Toronto General Hospital. She has a broad range of clinical research interests and more recently completed a Masters degree in quality improvement. She is involved in the Toronto ACHD Transition Program and also specializes in Cardio-Obstetrics.
Dr. Luc Mertens is currently the Director of the Echocardiography and co-director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto. Dr. Mertens obtained his medical degree and a doctoral degree in Medical Sciences (Physiology and Molecular Biology) at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He trained in Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology at the University Hospitals Leuven and at The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN (USA). He worked as a pediatric cardiologist at the University Hospitals in Leuven between 1998 and 2008. His clinical expertise is in pediatric echocardiography. His research interests focus on studying cardiac function in children.
Dr. Morgan joined the Division of Cardiology at SickKids as a staff cardiologist in July 2018. He is pursuing a master’s degree in Medical Education through the University of Toronto and is the resident supervisor.
Dr. Erwin Oechslin is the past-director of the Toronto ACHD Program. After graduation from the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and completion of his adult cardiology training, he did a one-year fellowship in pediatric cardiology in Zurich and a 2-year fellowship in ACHD in Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Gary Webb. He moved permanently to Toronto, Canada, in 2006 and succeeded Dr. Gary Webb as Director of the ACHD Program.
Dr. Oechslin is Past-Chairman of the ESC WG on ACHD, Past‐President of the Canadian Adult Congenital Heart (CACH) Network (www.cachnet.ca), and Past-Presidents Liaison of the International Society for Adult Congenital Heart Disease (www.isachd.org).
Dr. Lucy Roche attended medical school at Leeds University, UK. She spent one year as the extracorporeal life support Fellow at the Freeman Hospital (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) before completing pediatric cardiology training, also at the Freeman Hospital. Between 2007 and 2009 she was the Philip Witchel Heart Failure Fellow at The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto, Canada). She completed fellowship training in adult congenital heart disease at Toronto General Hospital (Toronto, Canada). Her areas of expertise are heart failure and transplantation in congenital heart disease, pediatric cardiology, and pregnancy and heart disease.
Dr. Silversides has approximately 200 publications and has authored chapters in leading Cardiology reference texts including Braunwald’s Heart Disease, Otto’s Textbook of Clinical Echocardiography and Elkayam’s Cardiac Problems in Pregnancy. She has contributed to a number of international practice guidelines and consensus statements including chairing the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Guidelines on Adult Congenital Heart Disease. She was awarded the Kent Ueland distinguished career award for her role in advancing the field of pregnancy and heart disease.
Dr Sara Thorne joined Toronto ACHD in 2019 after 20 years in practice at University Hospital Birmingham UK where she established the regional Adult Congenital Heart Disease Unit and a renowned Obstetric Cardiology Programme with Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital. She has published widely in the field and collaborated closely with UK national bodies, working to improve cardiovascular maternal morbidity and mortality. Her areas of expertise are congenital heart disease, inherited aortopathy and obstetric cardiology.
Dr. Rachel Wald completed her pediatric cardiology fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto and did additional training in cardiac imaging at the Children’s Hospital, Harvard University Boston. She completed her ACHD training at the University of Toronto. She is a staff cardiologist at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, and a professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology and Medical Imaging at the University of Toronto.