Marion McRae, ACNP-BC, is a nurse practitioner in the Guerin Family Congenital Heart Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. She is also a full-time PhD student in nursing science at the Medical University of South Carolina and holds a Robert Wood Johnson Future of Nursing Scholar award for 2015 – 2018. Marion has over 30 years of experience in congenital heart disease (CHD) and cardiac surgery in Toronto, Canada and Los Angeles and specializes in the adult spectrum of CHD. The program she works in is unique in that they see all CHD patients from fetuses to older adults, so no transitions in care are needed between fetal life and neonatal life, and between childhood and adulthood. Some of the specialties of this program include native outflow tract transcatheter or hybrid pulmonary valve replacement including geometric remodeling of the outflow tract, transcatheter closure of patent ductus arteriosus in premature babies as small as 600 g, and bloodless cardiac surgery.

Marion typically spends her day seeing children and adults with CHD in the outpatient clinic, and follows them after procedures and surgery. She can also see pregnant women in consultation who have a fetus with CHD in order to plan post-delivery care. She does emergency department and inpatient consults from all areas of the hospital. She spends a fair amount of her time taking patient calls and patient education/counseling. Marion also enjoys doing staff education, research and publishing. She is currently involved in research on long-term outcomes after the Fontan procedure for complex CHD.

On her time off Marion likes to cook, enjoy wines, and walking on the beautiful beaches of southern California for exercise.