As Canada’s largest heart health centre dedicated to preventing, diagnosing, and treating heart disease, we support people at every stage of their heart health journey while advancing the understanding and treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Quick facts
- The Heart Institute opened its doors in 1976. See a timeline of notable moments from our rich history.
- We employ over 1,500 physicians, nurses, researchers, technicians, allied health professionals and others.
- We work with 16 hospital partners, five Ontario health teams, primary care providers, and community organizations to improve cardiovascular care for nearly two million people across Eastern Ontario.
- We handle more than 270,000 patient visits a year and perform more cardiac procedures than any other hospital in Ontario. Many patients come from across Canada.
- We are renowned for outstanding patient care with patient satisfaction among the highest in Ontario.
- We operate Canada’s largest comprehensive cardiac prevention and rehabilitation program.
- Our principal investigators and research staff are dedicated to better understanding heart disease and finding new ways to treat and prevent it.
- We believe that world-class, patient-centred care is rooted in research and education. Learn more about research at the Heart Institute.
Noteworthy
- In 2025, we launched “One Million Canadian Hearts,” a pioneering initiative to screen one million Canadians for heart health.
- Our Acute Cardiac Triage Unit provides rapid access to specialist evaluation, diagnostics, and treatment for urgent cardiac concerns, helping patients receive timely care while reducing unnecessary emergency department visits.
- As an early adopter of telehealth technologies, the Heart Institute has been reshaping the delivery of health care for more than two decades. Learn more about our complete suite of virtual care programs: the Virtual Care Program, the Telehome Monitoring Program, and the Cardiac Virtual Care Program.
- A Canadian leader in telemedicine/telehealth, we have cut hospital readmission by 54% for heart failure patients saving up to $20,000 for each patient safely diverted from an ER visit, re-admission, and hospital stay.
- We developed and implemented an internationally recognized region-wide protocol that has cut STEMI heart attack deaths by half.
- Our smoking cessation program is in use in more than 450 sites across Canada and has been adopted in at least six international countries, including the U.S.A., Uruguay, England, Germany, Greece, and India.
- Established in 2014, our Canadian Women’s Heart Health Centre is the first of its kind in Canada.
- In 2018, we celebrated the grand inauguration of the Heart Institute’s critical care facility. This state-of-the-art addition is among the most sophisticated and technologically advanced cardiac care facilities in Canada.
Delivering care
- We switched to a fully integrated, patient-centred, electronic medical records management system called Epic. Patients can now conveniently access their personal medical files through the MyChart patient portal and review test results, medical reports, upcoming appointments and much more.
- We have established nine interdisciplinary heart teams to provide world-class, patient-centred care to patients of the Heart Institute. Heart teams are comprised of clinical experts from various cardiac subspecialities, including members from medicine, nursing, allied health, and research, whom are all driven by the Heart Institute’s desire for collaboration and innovation.
- We are a world leader in minimally invasive surgical techniques.
- Our Division of Cardiology has one of largest patient volumes per MD when compared against other academic centres in North America.
- We are officially designated under the Ontario French Language Services Act. The majority of our services are offered in both official languages.
- The National Cardiac PET Centre is a designated provincial resource and a core facility for national imaging networks.
- We regularly have more than 200 clinical trials underway, giving our patients access to new methods of care that may not be otherwise available.
Selected research highlights
The Heart Institute’s internationally recognized research program has:
- Identified the strongest genetic risk factor for coronary artery disease and heart attack to date (the 9p21 gene)—the first major risk factor discovered since cholesterol—at our Ruddy Canadian Cardiovascular Genetics Centre. Presence of this gene increases the risk of heart disease by 40%.
- Developed RAPID GENE, the world’s first bedside genetic test.
- Discovered the genetic basis for atrial fibrillation, the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia, affecting 250,000 Canadians.
- Established cardiac re-synchronization therapy as a standard of care for mild and moderate heart failure.
- Discovered a new mechanism for the mobilization and export of cholesterol from cells.
- Learn more about ongoing clinical trials and read our most recent scientific publications.
Education highlights
- We train more than 280 medical, graduate, and post-graduate students each year. The Ottawa Heart Institute provides continuing education and best practice training for physicians, nurses, technologists and other health care professionals and institutions.
- Heart Institute patient education tools and programs are used as models by health care organizations across Canada.