Biography – ICRH Scientific Director: Dr. Ariane Marelli

Dr. Ariane Marelli is the Scientific Director of the Institute for Circulatory and Respiratory Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) where her mandate is to advance health research for Canadians living with conditions of the heart, circulation and respiratory system.

She is Professor of Medicine at McGill University. She is an Associate Member of the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health and the Department of Experimental Medicine and a Senior Scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center. She is a Cardiologist trained at McGill University. She has advanced training in Adult Congenital Heart Disease from the University of California in Los Angeles, and an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. She is a clinician-scientist of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS) where she obtained the Distinguished Scholar Award (Chercheuse-boursière de mérite) in 2023. She founded the McGill Adult Unit for Congenital Heart Disease (MAUDE Unit) in 2005 recognized as a leading program in Canada and internationally. She has published seminal papers on the epidemiology of congenital heart disease across the lifespan creating one of the largest databases in the world with over 400,000 Canadians followed for up to four decades. Her work in complex outcomes across the lifespan mapping trajectories using novel methods has informed policy in Canada and internationally. Dr. Marelli co-authored Perloff's Clinical Recognition of Congenital Heart Disease, a widely recognized textbook of congenital heart disease sold world-wide. She has written book chapters and papers on congenital heart disease in children and adults. She has lectured internationally on topics related to congenital heart disease across the lifespan, population health and health services and policy research. She is known for her high-impact publications with over 100,000 citations, with more than 180 publications and 10 reports of invention.  

Previously, she was Director of Cardiovascular Research at the McGill University Health Centre where she led the development of the Cardiovascular Health Across the Lifespan (CHAL) program and was Chair of the Research Program Council. She is the immediate past-President of the Canadian Adult Congenital Heart Network where she chaired the Clinical Practice Guidelines on Adult Congenital Heart Disease published in 2022 and was the lead editor on a focus issue on adult congenital heart disease. At the Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF), she was one of five National Critical Area Chairs on the Council in Missions: Priorities; Advice, Science and Strategy (CoMPASS) with a mandate to shape the Heart and Stroke's 5-year Strategy Renewal Initiative. She was immediate past co-Chair of the HSF's National Advisory Committee for Congenital Heart Disease. She was appointed to the leadership council of the American College of Cardiology, Pediatric Cardiology and Adult Congenital Section where she was immediate past Chair of the Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiology Section's Quality Working Group.

She has received awards of excellence from the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. Along with Dr. Jack Lewin, CEO of the American College of Cardiology, she was a first recipient of the 2011 Heart Heroes Award from the Adult Congenital Heart Association in recognition of "visionary leadership in epidemiology, quality of care and health Information Technology for Congenital Heart Disease Patients". In 2022, she was appointed as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Science. In 2023, she was awarded the American College of Cardiology Leadership Award for her work on Quality Improvement and the National Cardiovascular Data Registry.

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