Montreal - Cardiac Surgery

Université de MontréalMontreal, QuebecRegular stream

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 10 Sep 2025

From the 2026 match (R-1 2026). See the 2027 version

Positions (approx. quota): 1 position
Length: 6 years
Stream: Regular
Discipline: Cardiac Surgery
Applications per year: 0–50
Applicants offered interviews: 76–100%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 30310

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

Summary

The Cardiac Surgery Residency Program at the University of Montreal offers comprehensive training in cardiovascular disease diagnosis, surgical management, and perioperative care. Residents benefit from a high-volume, tertiary-care environment with exposure to complex adult and pediatric cardiac cases. The program emphasizes evidence-based practice, surgical excellence, and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Training

Research

Active clinical and fundamental research opportunities with strong emphasis on scholarly activities

Training setting

Urban medical centers in Montreal, including multiple hospitals with high-volume cardiac surgical procedures and diverse clinical environments.

Teaching approach

Competency-based medical education with progressive independence, emphasizing evidence-based practice, surgical skills development, and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Setting types

Academic medical center
Tertiary care center
Specialized cardiac care facility

Focus areas

Cardiovascular disease diagnosis
Surgical management
Perioperative care
Adult cardiac surgery
Pediatric cardiac surgery
Congenital heart surgery
Complex valvular surgery
Myocardial revascularization
Aortic surgery
Mechanical support
Heart transplantation

Patient populations

Adult cardiac patients
Pediatric cardiac patients
Congenital heart disease patients
Complex valvular disease patients
Heart transplant patients

Highlights

Wet labs
Bi-weekly formal teaching program
Regular journal clubs
Hands-on perfusion experiments
Active clinical and fundamental research

Strengths

High-volume cardiac surgical procedures
Comprehensive surgical skills training
Strong research infrastructure
Multidisciplinary teaching approach
Exposure to diverse cardiac surgical techniques

Enhanced skills

Transeosophageal echocardiography
Angiography
Endovascular therapy
TAVR
Circulatory support
Transplantation

By year

PGY-1

Surgical main trunkUniversité de MontréalFull year
Cardiology rotationsVarious sitesPartial year
General surgeryVarious sitesPartial year
Intensive care unitVarious sitesPartial year
Adult cardiac surgeryVarious sitesPartial year

PGY-2

Surgical main trunkUniversité de MontréalFull year

PGY-3

Adult cardiac surgeryVarious sites9 periods
Thoracic surgeryVarious sites3 periods
Transeosophageal echocardiographyVarious sites1 period

PGY-4

Adult cardiac surgeryVarious sites10 periods
Pediatric cardiac surgeryVarious sites3 periods

PGY-5

Adult cardiac surgeryVarious sites5 periods
AngiographyVarious sites3 periods
Endovascular therapyVarious sites3 periods
TAVRVarious sites3 periods
Circulatory supportVarious sites2 periods
TransplantationVarious sites2 periods

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

Academic achievements
Clinical/research experience
Electives
Examinations
Extra-curricular activities
Leadership skills
Reference letters
Research/publications
Medical student performance record

Applications per year

0–50

Applicants offered interviews

76–100%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 19 Jan 2026

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

Institut de Cardiologie de Montréal
CHUM
CHU Sainte-Justine
Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de 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.

Institut de Cardiologie de Montréal

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.

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.

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

Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur 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.

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

Contacts weren't collected for the 2026 match.

The current program director and contacts are on the 2027 version of this program and on the CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab).

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 5 Oct 2026.