Archive

Introducing the New Chief of Cardiac Anesthesiology

To new cardiac anesthesiology residents, Dr. Jean-Yves Dupuis explains that it may be hard for them to predict the twists and turns their careers might take. “I tell them that the day I finished my internship back in 1979, I swore I would never go back to a university hospital—I wanted to travel the

Building a Community for a Revolutionary Surgical Technique

For a groundbreaking new technique to gain traction within the global surgical community, it must have a community of practice—“a community of surgeons,” explained Dr. Marc Ruel, “performing it regularly, who can give feedback to each other and develop new approaches and tricks within the technique

Helping to Modernize Cardiac Care in China

Qingdao is a metropolis on the northeastern coast of China. Like many Chinese cities, it has seen explosive growth. In the past decade, Qingdao’s population has more than tripled to nearly 9 million people. Such growth has spurred the need to expand and modernize medical facilities and programs. In

New Tests Advance the Promise of Personalized Medicine

In less than a decade, the search for common genetic variations that alter people’s risk of disease has changed the way we think about genetic risk. In the world of cardiovascular medicine, 36 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)—the tiny genetic changes that help to differentiate one individual’s

High Ranking for Research Impact

In the recently released SCImago Institutions Rankings [SIR] World Report on the research impact of institutions and companies worldwide, the University of Ottawa Heart Institute placed 57th out of 3,042 organizations. The ranking, conducted by the SCImago Research Group, assessed the quality and

National Recognition for Researcher’s Contributions to Patient Care

With roughly half a million Canadians now living with heart failure, the condition is an increasingly common one that can seriously impact an individual’s quality of life. Even when appropriately treated, hospital admission and readmission rates are stubbornly high. George Wells, Director of the

Getting a Handle on Hypertension

Dr. Frans Leenen is the Director of the Hypertension Clinic and Hypertension Research at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. In 2008, he and fellow Heart Institute researcher Dr. George Fodor led the Ontario Survey on the Prevalence and Control of Hypertension, the most in-depth study of high

Genetic Counsellor Takes on National Role

Julie Rutberg, Genetic Counsellor at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute since 2005, has been elected incoming President of the Canadian Association of Genetic Counsellors (CAGC). In her new position, she and the CAGC’s Board of Directors plan to tackle several big-picture questions about the

AHA 2011: What We Know about Women and Heart Disease

The State of the Science Lecture on Women and Heart Disease by Anne Rosenfeld of the Oregon Health Sciences University made it clear that there is much to learn about the ways the disease is unique to women. What we do know indicates that risk, symptoms, progression and treatment of CVD are all

AHA 2011: More Genes and Putting Screening to Use

The CARDIoGRAM consortium, of which the Heart Institute is a founding member, reported finding 13 new genetic regions associated with increased risk for coronary artery disease and heart attack. CARDIoGRAM brings together research teams from around the world to pool data sets and increase their