For the CRCHUM Intertheme Conference on March 17^th, our featured speaker will be Dr. Martin Girard, a regular researcher in the CRCHUM’s Imaging and Engineering Research Theme, an anesthesiologist intensivist at the CHUM and a clinical associate professor in the Université de Montréal’s Department of Anesthesiology.

Mechanical ventilation is a common intervention in the operating room and in intensive care. Although it is needed to perform surgeries or save lives, mechanical ventilation, when not properly adjusted, can lead to pulmonary damage, which has been associated with poor clinical outcomes.

The two main factors responsible for respiratory complications induced by mechanical ventilation are aeration loss and excessive pulmonary strain. Dr. Girard’s research program aims to provide doctors with a tool, lung ultrasonography, available for bedside use with patients and easy to use, in order to minimize these two factors. This could improve the safety of mechanical ventilation by using commonly used ultrasound equipment.

Dr. Girard completed his MD and internal medicine training at McGill University. He then completed specializations in anesthesiology (2006) and intensive care (2007) at the Université de Montréal. During the first part of his fellowship, Dr. Girard gained expertise in transesophageal echocardiography in intensive care (2007-2008, 6 months) with Prof. Antoine Vieillard-Baron (Paris, France). During the second part of his fellowship, Dr. Girard received lung ultrasonography training (2008-2009, 12 months) with Profs. J.-J. Rouby and B. Bouhemad (Paris, France), both pioneers in this technique. He began practising as an anesthesiologist intensivist at the CHUM in May 2009. In 2020, he completed a Master of Biomedical Science at the Université de Montréal.

The goal of the Interdisciplinary conferences is to allow you to learn more about the work of our researchers and to encourage collaborations among the Research Centre’s different Research Themes.

They are intended for the entire scientific community of the CRCHUM and are offered two to three times per month.