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On January 1, 2013, Dr. Marc Ruel took over as Chief of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He succeeded Dr. Thierry Mesana, who had led the division since 2001. Since joining the Heart Institute in 2002, Dr. Ruel has been a pioneer and advocate of minimally invasive cardiac

Almost no one complains about the food. It’s not that the food at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute is better than at other hospitals. But, said Sharon Ann Kearns, the Manager of Quality and Performance Measurement, when people are satisfied with their care and feel they have been well

Minimally invasive cardiac surgery (MICS) is staking a middle ground between open-heart surgery and catheter-based procedures. Not surprisingly, there are pluses and minuses with each specific procedure, and some are more established than others. All offer the advantages of keeping the heart beating

As commentaries on radiation go, Peter Parker likely summed it up best: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Although no one at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute has had to deal with the complications of acquiring superpowers from a radioactive spider, the staff is profoundly aware

If they weren’t such a modest lot—and if they hadn’t been quite so tired—you might have heard the sounds of celebration at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute last month. It was an occasion truly worth celebrating—the Heart Institute’s 500th heart transplant since the program began in 1984. At

Each year, the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress draws thousands of professionals from across the country to share their expertise and learn about the latest developments in cardiovascular medicine. The Heart Institute continued to increase its impact with more than 125 program items (pdf), not to

Regenerative medicine was widely discussed at CCC 2012, and Heart Institute researchers continue to innovate in harnessing the body’s own stem cells to fix or replace damaged cardiac tissue. Two Heart Institute graduate students presented research nominated for the Trainee Research Award in basic

Patients who have a heart attack followed by return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), but not consciousness, have a poor prognosis. The neurological outcomes for these so-called ROSC patients can be aided by rapid cooling of the body (therapeutic hypothermia) in the cardiac catheterization lab, but

Patients placed on a heart-lung machine for heart surgery have a high incidence of neurocognitive deficits, including memory loss, attention deficits and decline in motor skills. New data from Heart Institute investigators provide some reassurance, though, that many of these deficits resolve over

Within 30 days of non-cardiac surgery, one in 10 patients will have a major vascular complication. In the CCC State-of-the-Art lecture, Dr. PJ Devereux of McMaster University brought to the fore work being done to reduce myocardial injury after non-cardiac surgery (MINS). Surgery is stressful, and