Welcome Drs. Vanessa Gadoury-Lévesque and Catherine Rich

The Department of Pediatrics would like to introduce our newest members, Drs. Vanessa Gadoury-Lévesque and Catherine Rich.

Dr. Vanessa Gadoury-Lévesque was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Dermatology, starting July 2021.

I can’t express how excited I am to be coming back to the Montreal Children’s Hospital in a few months! I had the chance to be part of multiple great institutions in the past decade, but only the MCH have ever had this power of making me feel at home.

I completed my medical school training at Université de Sherbrooke before coming to the MCH for my residency in general pediatrics. I then moved to the USA for 2 years to complete my fellowship in pediatrics allergy and clinical immunology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC), and I’m now back in Québec to do my PGY-6 and final residency year in adult dysimmunity at Université de Montréal. While at CCHMC, I focused my work on hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and other auto-inflammatory disorders, as well as primary immune deficiencies (PID) and food allergies. My final fellowship year is meant to give me more experience with immune problems seen in the adult population so that I can help facilitate the transition to adult care for teenagers and young adults with PID.

Outside of work (and pandemic context), one of my favourite things to do is spending time with friends and family. My other top activity is definitely being on a lake doing kayak, snowmobile, paddleboard, boat ride, swimming or simply enjoying the view of it. I’m really looking forward to the end of the pandemic and be able to combine again my 2 top activities! However I must say this isolation situation also allowed me to develop a more ‘artistic’ part of me. I now really enjoy creating blankets and other items with chunky yarn or macrame rope, building small furniture or simply drawing for fun. Time is gold :)

See you all this upcoming July!

Dr. Catherine Rich was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Division of General Pediatrics, starting July 2021.

I am delighted to be joining the dynamic team of academic general pediatricians at the MCH! I completed my medical school training and general pediatrics residency at McGill, and I have had the opportunity to be chief resident at the MCH in 2018-2019. I am currently completing a fellowship in Simulation-based teaching at Université de Montréal, combined with a fellowship in Academic General Pediatrics at CHU Sainte-Justine. I am also pursuing the Master of Science in Healthcare Quality program at Queen’s University. The overarching goal of my academic pursuits is to use simulation and debriefing to improve patient safety, operational efficiencies and care quality. Specifically, I am interested in using simulation to improve teamwork training, to identify latent safety threats in the clinical environment, to review and recreate sentinel events where an adverse event has occurred, and to test new processes, technology and equipment.

In my free time, I enjoy playing outdoors. During the winter, I love to downhill and cross-country ski in the Eastern Townships and during the summer, I enjoy jogging on the Lachine canal and Verdun waterfront. I have a newfound appreciation for quiet Friday nights spent playing piano and trying out new take-out food with my partner to encourage local restaurants.

I look forward to working with you all!