Graduate Certificate - Diagnostic Cardiac Sonography

The Diagnostic Cardiac Sonography graduate certificate is a two-year postgraduate program in echocardiography for students with a prior health science credential.

Content covers cardiac anatomy, physiology and haemodynamics, ultrasound physics and instrumentation, transthoracic echocardiography technique and standard views, Doppler and colour flow imaging, quantification of chamber size and ventricular function, valvular heart disease assessment, congenital and acquired cardiac pathology, stress echocardiography, and cardiac measurement and reporting protocols. Extended clinical placements in hospital cardiology departments run through the program.

Cardiac sonography is one of the most specialised and best-remunerated diagnostic imaging disciplines, and it is genuinely difficult — imaging a moving heart through a fixed ribcage while measuring function in real time. The two-year length reflects that, and also supports a longer Post-Graduation Work Permit where the field is eligible.

This is a regulated health profession in Ontario. Graduating from the program is not the same as being licensed to practise: registration with the relevant Ontario college and a certification examination follow graduation. Confirm the current registration pathway for internationally educated applicants before you apply.

Humber Polytechnic — formerly Humber College — is Ontario’s largest public college and a Designated Learning Institution (DLI O19376943122). The North campus in Etobicoke is its main site, running technology, engineering, health science, business and skilled trades programs in purpose-built labs and shops rather than lecture halls, with three intakes a year and the deepest employer network in the Greater Toronto Area.

Its field maps to CIP 51.0910 (Diagnostic medical sonography). Important: this is a college credential rather than a degree, so it is not exempt from the November 2024 PGWP field-of-study restriction — eligibility depends on this CIP field appearing on IRCC’s eligible list when you apply. Humber publishes a PGWP-eligible program list with CIP codes; check it, and confirm with an Apply Study Visa counsellor before committing. IRCC makes the final decision.