Career Summary
Dr. Anne Fournier graduated from medical school at the University of Montreal in 1980. After training in pediatrics (1981-1983) and Pediatric Cardiology (1983-1984, 1985-1986) at the CHU Sainte-Justine, University of Montreal, she completed a fellowship in pediatric cardiac electrophysiology at Jackson Memorial Hospital, University of Miami, and Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston from 1984 to 1985.
Since 1986, she joined the division of pediatric cardiology at CHU Sainte-Justine as chief of electrophysiology section. Dr. Fournier is in charge of pediatric patients with pacemakers and defibrillators. She is a consultant in pediatric cardiology, especially for patients with complex arrhythmias and has participate in electrophysiological studies and ablation therapy. Dr Fournier has also developed expertise in cardiac-related dysfunction associated with neuro-muscular diseases and pediatric pulmonary hypertension. She has developed a large network of outreach clinics of pediatric cardiology throughout the province of Quebec, encompassing more than 6,000 visits per year in medical centers affiliated with CHU Sainte-Justine.
Dr. Fournier participated in numerous clinical research project, is co- author of 20 book chapters, 130 publications and more than 200 scientific presentations. Dr Fournier is responsible for the organization of the provincial annual symposium on congenital heart disease that was held for the 13th time last year. Since the beginning of her career, she is a member of Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the Canadian Pediatric Cardiology Association. She has been involved in the Trainee Review Program in Pediatric Cardiology and has been the Congenital Track Captain from 2012-2017, responsible to organize the presentations related to congenital heart disease during the annual Canadian Cardiovascular Congress. She has been recently involved in guidelines development for the Canadian Cardiovascular Society on the screening of congenital heart defect using pulse oximetry, the diagnosis and treatment of syncope in children and the cardiovascular evaluation of athletes.
Since 2013, she is a member of the Pediatric Subcommittee of the Canadian Hypertension Education Program (CHEP) for the development of guidelines for the detection and management of hypertension in the pediatric population. In 2015, she has been nominated co-director of the working group on transition for the department of pediatrics of the CHU Sainte-Justine, this working group has the mandate to organize transition and transfer of pediatric patients to adult facilities. She is involved in research on the topic and has received a subvention from the IRSC on patient oriented research in 2017.
Dr Fournier gives regularly courses to the different trainees in pediatric and in cardiology, she is invited frequently to give lectures in provincial, national and international meetings. In 2014, she received the Clinical Excellence Award from the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Montreal in recognition for the excellence in leadership and clinical innovation.
From another perspective, Dr. Fournier has been involved with the community as a founding member of a pediatric cardiac patients’ foundation in 1984, the Quebec Foundation for Children with Heart Disease, (Fondation En Coeur). She is currently an active member of the board of directors. The services offered by En Coeur include funding of the mobile pediatric cardiology clinic and facilitating the housing of parents of children requiring hospital stays remotely from their home. For this involvement she received the prize for social implication of the faculty of medicine of the University of Montreal in 2012.