Markus Schwerzmann, MD, is a cardiologist at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.
Background
Dr. Schwerzmann earned his medical degree from The University of Zurich in 1996. He subsequently trained in internal medicine and cardiology in Switzerland, followed by a fellowship in adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) in Toronto. Prior to his training in ACHD, he completed a research fellowship in echocardiography at The University Hospital of Bern and worked as an attending physician in the echo lab. He was certified as a Swiss specialist in internal medicine (2002) and in cardiology (2006). After his ACHD training, Dr. Schwerzmann founded and directed the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Unit and co-directed the Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Program at The University Hospital of Bern.
For many years, he was a board member of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) working group for grown-up congenital heart disease, and one of the co-authors of the 2020 ESC guidelines on ACHD. He was also the coordinating reviewer of the 2022 European Society of Cardiology and European Respiratory Society guidelines on the management of pulmonary arterial hypertension. He served as president of the Swiss Society for Pulmonary Hypertension (SSPH) until his move to Ottawa.
He is a member of the Swiss Society of Cardiology, the Swiss Society for Pulmonary Hypertension, The International Society for Adult Congenital Heart Disease, and is also a fellow of the European Society of Cardiology.
Dr. Schwerzmann joined the UOHI in 2023 as lead of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program.
Research and clinical interests
Dr. Schwerzmann’s research interests focus on clinical outcomes in ACHD, particularly on the failing right ventricle. He was the principal investigator of one of the few international placebo-controlled randomized clinical trials in ACHD, aiming to improve the fate of patients with a systemic right ventricle. Additional research interests include the transition process, as well as care perspectives when approaching end of life, and the identification of outcome predictors.