Our Obstetrical Anesthesia Subspecialty Team members have various backgrounds in terms of fellowship training, from different parts of the world; all have a very keen interest in promoting state-of-the-art obstetrical care. We are very fortunate to have a unique Research Committee within our Anesthesia Department that helps promote a strong basis for research, and assists with research output support in all of our Fellowship programmes.
Additionally, our team members are experienced with the use of Point of Care Ultrasound (PoCUS) for caring of high-risk obstetrics patients. This includes; the use of echocardiography for management of shock and hemodynamic instability in obstetric patients, Gastric ultrasound, and Spinal ultrasound to assist with the neuraxial techniques, particularly in our bariatric parturients (~ 40%!). Our fellows are expected to be competent with these skillsets at the end of their fellowship training.
The Obstetrical Anesthesia Fellowship year is divided into two six-month blocks: one at each of the Civic and General campuses. This is done mainly so that the Fellow gains a breadth of knowledge and experience from the more specialized high-risk services offered at those respective sites with the Civic campus being close to the Cardiac Institute which allows for the care of high risk cardiac obstetric patients and the General campus which has very close proximity to/ association with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) that proves vital in assisting with our higher risk babies. There is a Fellowship Lead at each campus so that the Fellow has an on-site reference person and “guide” for each placement. The co-leads work very closely together to provide the best educational and clinical experience possible for the successful candidate.