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Pediatric Cardiology

The section of Pediatric Cardiology operates out of the state-of-the-art Children’s Heart Centre (CHC), established in 2021. We provide antenatal, pediatric and adult transition cardiac care for all of Manitoba, Northwestern Ontario and central Nunavut. As a founding member of the Western Canadian Children’s Heart Network, we work closely with our surgical partner centers across Canada. Our multidisciplinary team is made up of cardiologists, nurse clinicians, technologists, a social worker and administrative staff who collaborative to provide comprehensive care from fetal life to early adulthood. We provide outpatient services to 6000 patients every year through our primary CHC clinic and through outreach clinics in Northern Manitoba and Nunavut. We also provide inpatient consultation services at Children’s Hospital and St. Boniface Hospital. We are a proud partner of our family support group, Circle of Hearts, which offers peer to peer support and activities for families navigating a pediatric cardiac journey.

What We Do

How to Refer a Patient

Key Staff & Contacts

What We Do

The practice of pediatric cardiology encompasses the diagnosis and treatment of all forms of childhood heart disease. This can range from congenital heart defects (CHD) which may require medical intervention in the form of medication, surgery and other less invasive procedures, or cardiac transplantation. Many complex forms of CHD are diagnosed during the fetal period so that a detailed treatment plan can be created before birth. Our program also manages all forms of acquired pediatric heart disease, such as inflammatory and infectious conditions of the heart, like myocarditis, pericarditis, Kawasaki disease and rheumatic fever. We diagnose and manage electrical disturbances of the heart (arrhythmias) and genetic diseases of the heart muscle (cardiomyopathies) or blood vessels, such as Marfan syndrome.

Our Programs

The nucleus of our program is the Children’s Heart Centre located on the fourth floor of the Diagnostic Center of Excellence building (DCE) adjacent to Children’s Hospital. Our outpatient ambulatory clinics, ECG/stress/holter lab, pacemaker clinic and echocardiography labs are all located there, in addition to our counselling area, teleconferencing room and administrative offices. Our cardiac MRI program is located on the first floor of the DCE building and our cardiac catheterization laboratory can be found on the second floor of the DCE building.

How to Refer a Patient

We accept referrals from all PCP’s (family doctors, pediatricians, midwives and physician assistants). Referrals can be directed to a specific pediatric cardiologist (Buffo, Pepelassis, Schantz, or Soni) or to the group. We do not accept standalone requests for echocardiography.

Elective outpatient referrals can be sent by fax or mail:

Fax: 204-787-2004

Mail: Children’s Heart Clinic
JM-476
820 Sherbrook Street
Winnipeg, MB
R3A 1R9

For any patients who require assessment in our clinic on a non-elective basis, please page the pediatric cardiologist on call through the HSC switchboard (204-787-2071). For all inpatient consultation requests at Children’s Hospital or St. Boniface hospital, please page the pediatric cardiologist on call directly and fax the consult to 204-787-1282. Our on-call nurse clinician can be reached from Monday to Friday 8 am to midnight and on weekends through HSC paging.

Research

The section is actively involved in research in a wide range of pediatric cardiology areas. This includes the epidemiology of certain acquired pediatric cardiac conditions, such as rheumatic fever and Kawasaki disease, in the Manitoba First Nations population. The section also actively collaborates with the section of Medical Genetics to study inherited cardiac conditions, such as cardiomyopathies in Mennonite and Hutterite populations. The role of cardiac MRI in the evaluation and prognostication of adolescent eating disorders is also an ongoing area of study. The expression of Brain Naturetic Peptide in various types of pediatric cardiac disease, such as congenital heart disease, cardiomyopathies, and myocarditis is also being characterized. Through active collaboration with Maternal Fetal Medicine, the impact of targeted educational interventions on the rate of antenatal detection of fetal cardiac disease in Manitoba and its impact on postnatal outcome is also being actively studied.

Education & Training

The section of Pediatric Cardiology is actively involved in didactic and bedside teaching in a number of areas. We provide instruction to undergraduate students in all four years of the Max Rady medical school and to postgraduate residents in the departments of Pediatrics, Adult Cardiology and Obstetrics. We also provide formal teaching to the Faculty of Nursing and Physician Assistant program in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, in addition to the Red River Community College Ultrasound training program. We are also actively involved in the education of cardiology fellows in other WCCHN fellowship programs (Edmonton and Vancouver). We have an approved postgraduate training program in Fetal Cardiology.