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SickKids

Labatt Family Heart Centre

The Labatt Family Heart Centre at SickKids is among the top paediatric heart centres in the world, driving innovation that consistently leads to better outcomes for patients with heart disease. The LFHC provides world-class quality, comprehensive paediatric and congenital heart disease care from conception to adulthood using expert inter-disciplinary teams in an innovative, family-centered environment that integrates health care, education and research.

two hands in the shape of a heart on a blue background

Shaping the Future of Paediatric Cardiovascular Care: Our 2025-2030 Strategy

This strategy outlines a visionary roadmap to advance paediatric cardiovascular care, research, and education. Developed through broad consultation across disciplines, it reflects the voices of staff, patients and families, and community partners who share a passion for transforming heart health.

Together, we’re building a future where every heartbeat counts.

LFHC 2025-2030 Strategy

A global leader in transformational congenital cardiac care

We aim to produce measurable, unmatched outcomes in cardiac clinical care, research, and education by:

  1. Creating an environment for staff to continuously innovate and create value; 
  2. Striving for exemplary patient and family satisfaction, and staff engagement; 
  3. Embracing and enhancing our outstanding partnerships at all levels; 
  4. Leading education and transformative research; and 
  5. Enabling our work with responsible and responsive operations.

The future of cardiac clinical care 

Our vision of premier international excellence is based on the Centre’s four pillars:

  1. Unsurpassed, measurable patient outcomes; 
  2. Innovative, practice-changing research; 
  3. Superb education, training and quality of work life; 
  4. Exemplary patient and family satisfaction. 

Healthy hearts. Healthier lives.

The Heart Centre is comprised of four Divisions, each with their own subspecialty areas. You can learn more about a particular division below!

Division of Cardiology

One of the world's largest paediatric heart institutions, the Division of Cardiology at SickKids continues to tackle critical challenges in child heart health.

Visit Cardiology

Division of Cardiovascular Surgery

Together with the Labatt Centre, the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery provides care to children with congenital & acquired forms of heart disease.

Visit Cardiovascular Surgery

Division of Cardiac Critical Care

Cardiac Critical Care manages critical illness through all modes of mechanical ventilation, mechanical support of the circulation and support of organ systems.

Visit Cardiac Critical Care

Division of Cardiac Anesthesia

The Division of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine at SickKids provides anesthetic care to over 20,000 infants and kids every year.

Visit Cardiac Anesthesia

Staff

Mike Seed 

Sue Morton

Joanna Brown

  • Clinic Coordinator
  • Phone: 416-813-5848  

Stephanie Darlington

  • Clinic Nurse
  • Phone: 416-813-7654 ext. 203075 

Osami Honjo 

Eryn Milton

Maricor Fernando

Roxanne Kirsch

Kathy Boyko

Robert Hamilton 

Andrea Di Pasquale

David Rosen

Rafael Alonso-Gonzalez

  • Head, Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, Toronto General Hospital 
  • Phone: 416-340-4871
  • Email: rafa.alonso@uhn.ca  

Jackie Hubbert 

  • Executive Director, Labatt Family Heart Centre, Critical Care Services, Acute Care Transport
  • Phone: 416-813-5596 
    Email: jackie.hubbert@sickkids.ca

Michelle Elliot

Ashley Smith

Theresa Passanha

Sue Morton

Nella Perri

Sarah Carter

Anesthesia Office

Christine Kerr

Heart Centre principal investigators

Learn with the Labatt Family Heart Centre

Heart Centre Research Fellowship Opportunity

The Labatt Family Heart Centre offers one- to two-year funded research fellowships for $55K CAD/year. Fellowships commence July 1 and the focus is to enhance cardiology research (basic, clinical, translational) among trainees, and to develop a career in the field of cardiology.

Heart Centre Fellowships are available to those completing research in the areas of General Cardiology, Cardiovascular Sciences and Heart Failure. Fellowship applications are due June 1st each year and funding will start the following year.  For example, if you apply for funding on June 1st 2025, your funding will start on July 1st, 2026. 

Please send your completed application to Christine Kerr. 

Research Fellowship Application (.doc)

PI Attestation (PDF)

Candidates must possess an MD or PhD (or equivalent degree in a cardiac related field and be within 5 years from completion of their degree. Candidates must demonstrate at least 75 per cent protected research time. Candidates must submit the application along with the project description and an updated CV as part of the application process. 

Candidates must identify a supervisor with expertise in cardiology research at SickKids.   

Supervisors will need to provide a one- to two-page letter of support that describes: 

  • The mentorship plan 
  • Assures protected research time 
  • Demonstrates availability of funding for trainee salary supplement where applicable and for the research project 

Applications are due on June 1 of the application cycle for a fellowship funding start date of July 1 of the following year. Applicants will be notified of competition results by late August of each application cycle.

Additional paid research fellowships are available on a case by case basis.  Candidates must identify and contact a supervisor who agrees to oversee your project during your research term. Salaries for these research fellowships will either be paid by the fellow’s supervising PI or through external funding from the fellow’s home institutions or home government grant programs.

Fellowships are available across the Labatt Family Centre’s four Divisions. For more information on deadlines, dates, and details on each fellowship program, contact the respective program for each division

Cardiology

Ashley Cunha - Education Administrative Coordinator  

Cardiovascular Surgery

Kelly Docherty -  Education Administrative Coordinator 

Cardiac Critical Care

Nella Perri - Supervisor, Administrative Services & Fellowship Program Coordinator 

Cardiac Anesthesia

Department of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine

Heart Centre Research Fellowships

Christine Kerr - Clinical Research Manager

Educational opportunities for research students

We offer opportunities for research students to work during the summer and throughout the school year. Check out the funding opportunities within the Research Training Centre.

Students looking for summer research studentships should visit the SickKids Summer Research Program (SSuRe) page for opportunities.

Research4Kids Clinical Research Database

We carry out a large volume of research studies, including Health Canada Regulated Clinical Trials, observational studies, and retrospective research studies. For more information on Heart Centre studies that you and your child can learn from, visit Research4Kids!

See a list of clinical research studies at SickKids

Become a SickKids research volunteer

The Heart Centre welcomes research student volunteers to assist our clinicians and scientists in their studies. Research positions are available through self-referral. Contact the Principal Investigator in the program you're interested in for potential opportunities.

See a list of SickKids researchers

Research funding opportunities

The Heart Centre Innovation Fund (IF) was established in 2007 as part of the $10M Labatt Family Endowment. Deadlines are in April and October each year. The fund supports projects that require start-up funds for basic research, clinical research, or quality improvement projects that impact cardiac patients.

Research funding updates 

Labatt Family Heart Centre Innovation Fund Award

Applicants may submit budgets of up to $40,000. Each fiscal year, we can fund four projects with a budget of $40,000 each. Applications are due each year on October 31st, and April 30th.

 

Advanced Cardiology Education (ACE) Award

The ACE award provides seed funding for non-physician led quality improvement and/or research projects with strong potential for impact in childhood onset heart disease.

The main applicant must be either nursing (including NPs) or allied health care professionals, including but not limited to dietitians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social work, speech and language pathologists, child life specialists, and pharmacists, music therapists and the project must be Labatt Family Heart Centre Related.

One application with a budget of up to $15,000 will be funded annually.

Applications are due on Oct.ober 31st each year.

Innovation Fund and ACE Award

The Innovation Fund competition is open to researchers, clinicians, nurses and allied health professionals within the Labatt Family Heart Centre, as well as applicants from outside of the Heart Centre who have a collaborator affiliated with the Heart Centre. The project should have the potential for direct impact for patients and families with childhood onset heart disease. 

The ACE Program Award competition is open to non-physician applicants in nursing (including NPs) and allied health care professionals, including but not limited to dietitians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social work, speech and language pathologists, child life specialists, and pharmacists and music therapists

Both competitions encourage applications from different interdisciplinary areas of the Heart Centre. Projects may focus on basic science, clinical research, new innovative ideas/technologies/methods for use in research, education, quality improvement or clinical care.

Please see the application forms for specific eligibility criteria. 

Application Deadlines

Fall Competition: Applications are due on October 31
Spring Competition: Applications are due on April 30

Please download and complete the applicable online application, and send it to christine.kerr@sickkids.ca

Download funding application (.docx)Download funding application (.docx)

Innovation Fund

Innovation Fund Awards provide up to $40,000 in funding for projects with a one-year timeline.

 

ACE Award

ACE Awards provide up to $15,000 in funding for projects with a one-year timeline. 

Funds will be awarded only if the applicant’s proposal aligns with the future directions of the Heart Centre. Projects will be reviewed based on the following criteria.

Innovation 

  • Proposed work represents new, unique, high risk concepts and creative thinking.

Potential for future development / dissemination 

  • Proposed research represents work that will lead to future expansion.   
  • For research, is this an important proof of concept or pilot work that will lead to new research directions or larger funding applications or development of new research teams?   
  • For clinical, is this a program that might be applied in other settings and other centres and achieve wider dissemination? 
  • For education, is this a program that can be disseminated or expanded?

Measures of impact 

  • How will the work impact its intended target or field of inquiry?   
  • Measures must be clearly delineated and specific to the proposed work.

Quality of the proposal 

  • Is the proposal well-organized and written? 
  • Are the purposes or aims of the work clearly specified? 
  • Is the work to be performed clearly described?  
  • Is there a rigorous and relevant evaluation of outcomes?  
  • Is the work scientifically sound?

Feasibility 

Can the work proposed be successfully performed given the expertise and resources available and requested? 

Applicants 

Do the applicants have sufficient expertise, experience and motivation to perform and report the work? 

Budget 

  • Is the budget sufficient to perform the work proposed successfully? 
  • Is the budget reasonable and well justified?  

The Labatt Family Heart Centre Research Council will review Innovation Fund and ACE award applications, with final funding decisions being approved by the Heart Centre Executive.

Grants, funding and awards

Heart Centre investigators were awarded funding for 48 new projects in 2025-2026, totaling $4.2M.

In 2025-2026, the Labatt Family Heart Centre and the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research invested a total of $1.9M in cardiovascular research, equaling a 2.2-fold Return on Investment (ROI).

Research Funding Totals by Funding Source:

Funding Source

2025–2026
Labatt Family Heart Centre
 $1,000,000.00
Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research
 $927,273.00
Institutional
 $1,314,478.08
External (Toronto)
 $200,000.00
External (Canada)
 $1,422,608.75
External (Industry)
 $864,895.00
External (International)
 $402,406.25
Total Funding
 $6,131,661.08

 

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