I am a veterinary cardiologist and internist, which means my interests are heart diseases in animals and interactions between the heart and the rest of the body. I was born and raised in Montreal, and did my undergrad and veterinary studies in the US. I practiced in Los Angeles and Boston for my first 10 years as a veterinarian before coming to AVC/UPEI. Initially, this was intended to be a short stint, until I discovered the importance and value attached to teaching and the constructive mentality at AVC that have kept me here for many years now.
Often, one of the challenges with cardiology in animals is knowing whether or not the heart is the source of a health issue. When there is a heart concern, it is so important to determine whether it is a serious one or something that is less severe than it might seem at first. These evaluations are what we do: we examine animals and perform tests like cardiac ultrasound (echocardiogram), X-rays, electrocardiogram (EKG, ECG), Holter monitoring, and cardiac catheterization, to determine the exact nature of a heart concern. We can then perform the treatments that are needed: medications or surgery (interventional cardiology). We are fortunate to have exceptional equipment, facilities, and the expertise of several other specialty services at the AVC in order to do this. At the same time, we train tomorrow’s veterinarians, and a fixture of coming to AVC is to interact with final-year veterinary students who stand out in their blue lab coats. They will often meet our patients and clients first, gather important information, and discuss their thoughts and plans with us, their supervising doctors. In this way, we provide a level of care that is unsurpassed in Atlantic Canada while seeing that knowledge is passed on to the next generation. I am interested in all aspects of cardiology, with a particular focus on understanding similarities between human and animal heart diseases (and how learning from one species can help another), clinical communication, methods of teaching and learning, and dissemination of knowledge through scientific articles and textbooks.