Yadira Martinez-Fernandez, MD - Pediatric Cardiologist

Director, Outpatient Cardiology
Co-Director, NeuroCardiac and Development Program

Dr. Martinez-Fernandez is the director of Outpatient Cardiology and co-director of the NeuroCardiac and Development Program within the Heart Institute at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. She also provides care as part of the multidisciplinary Spasticity and Movement Disorders Clinic team, as well as the Chromosome 22 Q Clinic team. Dr. Martinez-Fernandez earned her medical degree from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras. She completed a residency in pediatrics at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Dr. Martinez-Fernandez then pursued a fellowship in pediatric cardiology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital. Her clinical interests include congenital heart disease, preventive cardiovascular medicine, neurodevelopment in children with congenital heart disease and management of cardiovascular conditions in neuromuscular disorders.

Dr. Martinez-Fernandez is board certified in pediatric cardiology. She is involved in the management of individuals with an anomalous aortic origin of a coronary artery (AAOCA) and oversees the AAOCA study at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, a multicenter registry sponsored by the Congenital Heart Surgeons’ Society to gather information from children and young adults across North America with the goal of improving care and quality of life for patients with AAOCA in the future. Dr. Martinez-Fernandez also serves on the board of South Florida Autism Charter Schools and delivers educational lectures to parents of children affected by autism. She has published peer-reviewed articles and presented at medical conferences.

Dr. Martinez-Fernandez is employed by Nicklaus Children’s Pediatric Specialists, the multispecialty group practice of Nicklaus Children’s Health System. She sees patients at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and Nicklaus Children’s Palm Beach Gardens Outpatient Center and is bilingual in English and Spanish.

The Heart Institute at Nicklaus Children’s, a world leader in pediatric cardiology and cardiovascular surgery for the care of children with congenital heart disease, serves as a beacon to families confronting the reality of a child or newborn with a heart defect. The Heart Institute offers the most innovative and least invasive approaches to  the treatment of congenital heart disease, including many first-in-the-world procedures that were pioneered right here by The Heart Institute’s own internationally renowned cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons.