Cardiologist Thais Coutinho, MD, is Division Head of Prevention and Rehabilitation at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. In addition, she is Chair of the Heart Institute’s Canadian Women’s Heart Health Centre.
Dr. Thais Coutinho received her medical degree from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, in 2004, and completed residency and fellowship training in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Vascular Medicine, advanced Echocardiography and Research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, in 2013.
Upon graduating, Dr. Coutinho joined the University of Ottawa Heart Institute as a Clinician-Scientist. In 2017, she was appointed Chief of the Division of Prevention and Rehabilitation and Chair of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Centre. She is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Coutinho has addressed audiences at many national and international meetings, and has published several high impact manuscripts in the field of Cardiovascular Diseases. She served as Co-Chair of the first (2016) and second (2018) Canadian Women’s Heart Health Summit, the largest conference in the world dedicated exclusively to the cardiovascular health of women.
Dr. Coutinho has received numerous awards, including the American Heart Association’s Women in Cardiology Trainee (2010) and Young Investigator (2011) Awards, the American College of Cardiology’s Young Investigator Award (2nd place, 2012), the Mayo Clinic’s Summerskill Research Award and Cardiovascular Division Outstanding Achievement Award (2013), and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society’s Young Investigator Award (2015).
Dr. Coutinho’s research program focuses on arterial health, with a special emphasis on arterial stiffness and its role on the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. She focuses on sex differences in arterial aging, and how it may help explain sex differences in cardiovascular diseases. To pursue these investigations, she holds several research grants, including an Early Research Leaders Grant and a Grant-in-Aid from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, as well as a Clinician Scientist Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.
See current publications list at PubMed.
Selected publications:
- Mulloy A, Siouti L, Beauchesne L, Chan KL, Vulesevic B, Ascah K, Coutinho T, Promislow S, Burwash IG, Messika-Zeitoun D. Clinical implications of left atrial size adjustment: Impact of obesity. Arch Cardiovasc Dis 2021; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acvd.2021.01.007
- Ryzhaya N, Cermakova L, Trinder M, Ruel I, Coutinho T, Genest J, Brunham LR. Sex differences in the presentation, treatment and outcome of patients with Familial Hypercholesterolemia. J Am Heart Assoc 2021 [in press]
- Bouchard K, Coutinho T, Reed J, Lalande K, Tarannum CN, So D, Saw J, Mulvagh S, Tulloch H. Recovering from Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection: Patient-Reported Challenges and Rehabilitative Intervention Needs. Health Psychology 2021 [in press]
- O'Neill CD, Vidal-Almela S, Tulloch HE, Coutinho T, Prince SA, Reed JL. COVID-19 pandemic: Inequities and inequalities to exercise and their consequences on the physical and mental health of women with cardiovascular disease; Recommendations on how to address the needs of women. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab 2021: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2020-1094
- Boczar KE, Boodhwani M, Beauchesne L, Dennie C, Chan KL, Wells GA, Coutinho T. Aortic Stiffness, Central Blood Pressure, and Pulsatile Arterial Load Predict Future Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm Expansion. Hypertension 2021;77(1):126–134. DOI:10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA. 120.16249
- Rooprai J, Boodhwani M, Beauchesne L, Chan KL, Dennie C, Wells GA, Coutinho T. Central Hypertension in Patients With Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms: Prevalence and Association With Aneurysm Size and Growth. Am J Hypertens 2021 doi:10.1093/ajh/hpaa183
- Sun LY, Mielniczuk LM, Liu PP, Beanlands RS, Chih S, Davies R, Coutinho T, Lee DS, Austin PC, Bader Eddeen A, Tu JV. Sex-specific temporal trends in ambulatory heart failure incidence, mortality and hospitalisation in Ontario, Canada from 1994 to 2013: a population-based cohort study. BMJ Open 2020 10(11):e044126. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044126
- Richer J, Hill HL, Wang Y, Yang ML, Hunker KL, Lane J, Blackburn S, Coleman DM, Eliason J, Sillon G, D'Agostino MD, Jetty P, Mongeon FP, Laberge AM, Ryan SE, Fendrikova-Mahlay N, Coutinho T, Mathis MR, Zawistowski M, Hazen SL, Katz AE, Gornik HL, Brummett CM, Abecasis G, Bergin IL, Stanley JC, Li JZ, Ganesh SK. A Novel Recurrent COL5A1 Genetic Variant Is Associated With a Dysplasia-Associated Arterial Disease Exhibiting Dissections and Fibromuscular Dysplasia. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2020 40(11):2686-2699. doi.org/10.1161/ATVBAHA.119.313885.
- Mohamed W, Mohamed MO, Hirji S, Ouzounian M, Sun LY, Coutinho T, Percy E, Mamas MA. Trends in sex-based differences in outcomes following coronary artery bypass grafting in the United States between 2004 and 2015. Int J Cardiol 2020 320:42–48. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.07.039.
- Moulson N, Bewick D, Selway T, Harris J, Suskin N, Oh P, Coutinho T, Singh G, Chow CM, Clarke B, Cowan S, Fordyce CB, Fournier A, Gin K, Gupta A, Hardiman S, Jackson S, Lamarche Y, Lau B, Légaré JF, Leong-Poi H, Mansour S, Marelli A, Quraishi AUR, Roifman I, Ruel M, Sapp J, Small G, Turgeon R, Wood DA, Zieroth S, Virani S, Krahn AD. Cardiac Rehabilitation during the COVID-19 Era: Guidance on Implementing Virtual Care. Can J Cardiol 2020 Aug;36(8):1317-1321. doi: 10.1016/j.cjca.2020.06.006.