Montreal - Cardiac Surgery

Université de MontréalMontreal, QuebecRegular stream

CaRMS program description, 2027 match, last approved 25 Aug 2026 · See the 2026 version

2027 match programs, from CaRMS as of 5 Oct 2026. Programs can still change until file review opens 26 November; we re-check every two weeks. Always confirm on CaRMS (opens in a new tab).

Positions (approx. quota): 2 positions
Length: 6 years
Stream: Regular
Discipline: Cardiac Surgery
Applications per year: 0–50
Applicants offered interviews: 76–100%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 35881

Bands are 5-year averages the program reports to CaRMS. They describe past cycles, not your odds.

Summary

The Université de Montréal Cardiac Surgery program is a six-year Royal College-accredited residency delivered across multiple high-volume academic centres.
Training sites include the Montreal Heart Institute, Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur-de-Montréal, CHU Sainte-Justine for pediatric cardiac surgery, and CHUM.
PGY-5 includes dedicated blocks in endovascular therapy, TAVI, and ECMO/mechanical circulatory support/heart transplantation.
Functional French proficiency is required.

Training

Setting

Academic / tertiary hospital

Sites

4 teaching sites

Montreal Heart Institute (Institut de Cardiologie de Montréal – ICM)
Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur-de-Montréal (CIUSSS du Nord-de-l'Île-de-Montréal)
CHU Sainte-Justine

Show all 4

Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM)

Rural exposure

Not stated on CaRMS page

Research

Offered · research project · protected time

Call

In-house call · night float

Training language

French

Highlights

Dedicated PGY-5 rotations in TAVI and endovascular therapy, three blocks each.

By year

PGY-1

Cardiac Surgery4 blocks
Cardiology – Coronary Care Unit2 blocks
Intensive Care Unit2 blocks
Trauma Surgery2 blocks
Cardiac Anesthesia1 block
Night Float1 block
Surgical Foundations Boot Camp1 block

PGY-2

Cardiac Surgery5 blocks
Cardiac Catheterization / Hemodynamics3 blocks
Vascular Surgery3 blocks
Electrophysiology and Arrhythmia1 block
Intensive Care Night Float1 block

PGY-3

Cardiac Surgery8 blocks
Thoracic Surgery3 blocks
Transthoracic and Transesophageal Echocardiography2 blocks

PGY-4

Cardiac Surgery10 blocks
Pediatric Cardiac Surgery3 blocks

PGY-5

Cardiac Surgery5 blocks
Endovascular Therapy3 blocks
Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI)3 blocks
ECMO, Mechanical Circulatory Support (VAD), and Heart Transplantation2 blocks

From the program's rotation list.

Other rotations

Listed by the program without a single PGY year.

Adult Cardiac Surgery (Postgraduate Year 6 (PGY-6) · 13 blocks)
Interventional Radiology (Elective Rotations)
Cardiac Surgery (Elective Rotations · Université Laval)
Echocardiography (Elective Rotations)
Cardiac Anesthesia (Elective Rotations)

Selection

Application file components

CV
Electives
Examinations
Extra-curricular
Leadership skills
MSPRs
Personal letters
Reference documents
Research/Publications
Transcripts

Return of service

Not stated on CaRMS page. Check the provincial return-of-service rules.

Applications per year

0–50

Applicants offered interviews

76–100%

Interviews

Dates (2027 match)

18 Jan 2027

Format

Panel

Programs can change interview dates. Confirm on carms.ca.

Pay

Provincial scale, last updated 23 Jul 2026 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Annual salary by PGY level, Quebec
Level	Annual salary
PGY-1	$58,728 / year
PGY-2	$64,809 / year
PGY-3	$70,890 / year
PGY-4	$76,969 / year
PGY-5	$83,050 / year
PGY-6	$89,131 / year

One provincial scale for Quebec, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 6 levels this program covers.

Benefits

Benefits as listed by CaRMS in 2022–2024; check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Adoption leave: 29 to 38 weeks55 to 75 % of salary
Annual vacation: 20 days/year
Assistant Resident Coordinator: $425/month
Call Premium: $607/28 days
Conference leave: 7 days pd/year
Dental Plan: Yes, available for a fee
Exam leave: Day (s) of the exam
Extended Health Insurance: Yes
Leave for death in family: From 1 to 5 days depending on the family member
Leave of absence without pay (exceptional measure): 12 months maximum
Life insurance: Yes
Long-Term disability insurance: Yes
Maternity leaveProvincial Program (RQAP*) and FMRQ **: 21 weeks95 % of salary
Meals: Reduced feeFree during on-call duty
Pager: Provided by the establishment
Parental leave (time sharing between parents): 19 to 29 weeks55 to 75 % of salary
Parking: ½ of doctors’ feeFree during on-call duty
Paternity leaveProvincial Program (RQAP) and FMRQ: 1 week, 100% of salary3 to 5 weeks, 100% of salary(two options)
Professional Liability Insurance****(CPMA not applicable): Yes (free)
Quebec Health Insurance Program / RAMQ***: Yes
Resident Coordinator: $583/month
Resuscitation courses and examination leave: Day of the course and of the exam, course paid
Sick leave: 9.6 days pd / yearAnd reimbursement of days not taken
Statutory and floating holidays: 13/year
Study leave: 10 days pd/year
Superior Financial Programs: Yes
Teaching Premium: $240/28 days
Wedding leave: 7 days paid + 7 days without pay

Call

Call (provincial max): 6 calls in an establishment per 28 days

The union agreement’s cap for all residents in the province; your program’s actual call schedule may be lighter. Check with the program.

FMRQ agreement, 1 Apr 2021 to 31 Mar 2028.

Teaching sites

Montreal Heart Institute (Institut de Cardiologie de Montréal – ICM) (Montréal)
Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur-de-Montréal (CIUSSS du Nord-de-l'Île-de-Montréal) (Montréal)
CHU Sainte-Justine (Montréal)
Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) (Montréal)

Hospital facts

Public figures for hospitals named above, each with its source and reference period. They describe the hospital, not the program, and are not a ranking. We match names to the province’s lists by name, so check each source before you rely on it.

Montreal Heart Institute (Institut de Cardiologie de Montréal – ICM)

Matched to Institut de Cardiologie de Montréal (Montréal) in the province’s hospital list.

Emergency visits: 2025–2026: 8,656 · 2026–2027: 8,991 Cumulative from 1 April to the end of period 5 of 13 (about 20 weeks) of each fiscal year. Not a yearly total: compare only the same period.
Licensed beds: physical health 153 Capacity on the facility’s permit (au permis), by bed type, as of the 1 Oct 2026 extraction. Not staffed or open beds, and not added up across bed types.

Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur-de-Montréal (CIUSSS du Nord-de-l'Île-de-Montréal)

Matched to Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur-de-Montréal (Montréal) in the province’s hospital list.

Emergency visits: 2025–2026: 27,285 · 2026–2027: no row in the file Cumulative from 1 April to the end of period 5 of 13 (about 20 weeks) of each fiscal year. Not a yearly total: compare only the same period.
Licensed beds: physical health 420 · geriatrics 20 Capacity on the facility’s permit (au permis), by bed type, as of the 1 Oct 2026 extraction. Not staffed or open beds, and not added up across bed types.

CHU Sainte-Justine

Matched to CHU Sainte-Justine (Montréal) in the province’s hospital list.

Emergency visits: 2025–2026: 27,172 · 2026–2027: 27,007 Cumulative from 1 April to the end of period 5 of 13 (about 20 weeks) of each fiscal year. Not a yearly total: compare only the same period.
Licensed beds: physical health 333 · psychiatry 19 · neonatology 66 Capacity on the facility’s permit (au permis), by bed type, as of the 1 Oct 2026 extraction. Not staffed or open beds, and not added up across bed types.

Show facts for 1 more sites

Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM)

Matched to Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (Montréal) in the province’s hospital list.

Emergency visits: 2025–2026: 30,754 · 2026–2027: 32,697 Cumulative from 1 April to the end of period 5 of 13 (about 20 weeks) of each fiscal year. Not a yearly total: compare only the same period.
Licensed beds: physical health 732 · psychiatry 38 · neonatology 10 Capacity on the facility’s permit (au permis), by bed type, as of the 1 Oct 2026 extraction. Not staffed or open beds, and not added up across bed types.

Sources and licences

Contient de l'information fournie par le ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec et visée par CC BY 4.0. Données modifiées. (Contains information provided by the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec under CC BY 4.0. Data modified.)

Unfilled positions in past years

No repeated vacancies in CaRMS’s lists of open positions, 2019–2026.

Positions at this site, all streams.

Quebec: different match process, not directly comparable.

A position can go unfilled because of where the site is, because it is open to IMGs only or to another restricted stream, or because the quota changed late. It says nothing about the quality of the training. Verify with the CaRMS lists. Source: CaRMS’s lists of positions open after round 1 and after round 2, as read in October 2026 (latest: 2026 round 1 (CaRMS PDF, opens in a new tab), 2026 round 2 (CaRMS PDF, opens in a new tab)). A site’s numbers are shown when it had positions open after round 1 in at least 2 of 8 years or at least 3 in one year.

Contacts

Grouped by the titles CaRMS lists. The program office (administrators and coordinators) usually answers questions about the program and applying; the director leads the training.

Program officeadministrators and coordinators

Personne contact

latifa.El-Massaoudi@icm-mhi.org

Mme Latifa El Massaoudi · Secrétaire du programme d'entraînement en Chirurgie Cardiaque

Program director

Dr. Marina Ibrahim

CaRMS lists no email for the director.

Per CaRMS. Staff change during the cycle, so check the CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab) before emailing.

Location

Montreal, Quebec

About the city

Public statistics for the place named by this program’s location label, each with its source and reference period. They describe the place, not the program, and are not a ranking. Check each source before you rely on it.

Climate

Canadian Climate Normals, 1991–2020. Each value comes from the nearest weather station that reports it, not from the city itself.

January average: −9.2 °C Montreal Trudeau (Airport), 11.2 km away
July average: 21.7 °C Montreal Trudeau (Airport), 11.2 km away
Snowfall: 216.6 cm a year Montreal Trudeau (Airport), 11.2 km away
Days below −20 °C: 12.0 days a year Montreal Trudeau (Airport), 11.2 km away

People

2021 Census. Figures are for the municipality of Montréal, not the metropolitan area. Statistics Canada rounds counts, so small places are approximate.

Population: 1,762,949 people up 3.4% from 2016
Official languages: English only 11.9% · French only 27.2% · English and French 58.5% · neither 2.4% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 33.4% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 6.0% · non-permanent residents: 7.5%
Indigenous identity: 0.9% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 56.7% · public transit 28.4% · walking or cycling 13.0% · other 1.9% Average commute: 28.4 minutes. Shares are of people who commute.The way Canadians commute was altered in 2021 by the pandemic, with lockdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19 and changes in how and where Canadians worked leading to 2.8 million fewer commuters, compared with five years earlier. Statistics Canada, The Daily, 30 Nov 2022(opens in a new tab)
Median household income: $63,600 before tax $56,000 after tax · income year 2020, in 2020 dollars

Rural and remote

This describes the place named by the program’s location label. Programs can train in several towns, so it is not every site.

Population centre: Montréal, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 3,675,219 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.030 0 is least remote, 1 is most remote. Statistics Canada calls this index experimental.

Housing, cost and work

Each figure names the area it covers. A missing line means the source publishes nothing for this area.

Rental vacancy rate: 2.9% October 2025 survey, Montréal, Quebec (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $50,287 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Montréal, Québec, for two adults with two children. A modest, basic basket (the poverty line), not a resident’s budget. A size-class region is not the town itself.
Unemployment rate: 6.8% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, Montréal, Quebec (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.4 points. A survey estimate.

Job outlook

Employment and Social Development Canada’s rating for the occupation in the economic region. It is not a count of jobs, and says nothing about CaRMS positions or your match.

Outlook, 2025–2027: Good The employment outlook will be Good for specialists in surgery (NOC 31101) in the census metropolitan area of Montréal for the 2025-2027 period.
Canada-wide, to 2033: Strong risk of Shortage ESDC’s projection for specialists in surgery, 2024–2033. Recent conditions, 2021–2023: Strong signs of Shortage.

Sources and licences

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada. Adapted from Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Cartographic Boundary Files.
Adapted from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Rental Market Survey, October 2025 (vacancy rates), and Statistics Canada, Table 34-10-0130-01. This does not constitute an endorsement by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation or Statistics Canada of this product.
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada (Employment and Social Development Canada, Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS), 2024 to 2033 projections).
Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020).
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada (Employment and Social Development Canada, 3-Year Employment Outlooks).
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Index of Remoteness (17-26-0001), 2021. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 14-10-0459-01 Labour force characteristics by census metropolitan area, three-month moving average, seasonally adjusted, reference month 2026-09. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 11-10-0066-01 Market Basket Measure (MBM) thresholds for the reference family by Market Basket Measure region, component and base year, 2025. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0011-01 Population and dwelling counts: Canada and population centres, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0002-01 Population and dwelling counts: Canada and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0057-01 Household income statistics by household type: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0173-01 Mother tongue by knowledge of official languages: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0266-01 Indigenous identity by Registered or Treaty Indian status: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0307-01 Immigrant status and period of immigration by place of birth: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0458-01 Main mode of commuting by commuting duration, time leaving for work, age and gender: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.

Independent. Not affiliated with CaRMS or the program. Programs edit their descriptions during the match; confirm on carms.ca (opens in a new tab) before you apply. Data last updated on CdnMD 6 Oct 2026.