Dr. Duncan Stewart
Scientific Director

Dr. Stewart is the CEO and Scientific Director of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, as well as the Vice President of Research at the Ottawa Hospital and Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Stewart is a leader in developing cell and gene-based therapies for cardiovascular disease, including leading one of the first Canadian clinical trials to test an angiogenic gene therapy to stimulate heart repair in patients who had suffered heart attacks. Throughout his career, Dr. Stewart has demonstrated leadership in bringing diverse groups of clinicians and scientists together to put Canada on the world stage for translational cardiovascular and regenerative medicine research.

Visit Dr. Stewart’s web page.

Dr. Peter Liu
Vice-Scientific Director

Dr. Peter Liu is the Scientific Director of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, and Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the University of Toronto and University of Ottawa. He was the former Scientific Director of the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr. Liu’s lab investigates the causes and treatments of heart failure, role of inflammation and identification of novel biomarkers and interventions in cardiovascular disease. He is a champion for knowledge translation, integrating the cardiovascular prevention guidelines and promoting healthy heart policy internationally. The harmonized Canadian C-CHANGE guidelines are the first cardiovascular guidelines to be mandated by Ministries of Health across the country.

Visit Dr. Liu’s web page.

Janusz Kaczorowski
Theme 1 co-leader

Janusz Kaczorowski is Professor and Research Director in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Montreal. He holds the Dr. Sadok Besrour Chair in Family Medicine and the GlaxoSmithKline-CIHR chair in Optimal Management of Chronic Disease. He directs the Health Care Systems and Services research theme at CRCHUM. Janusz plays leadership roles in hypertension, stroke and primary care research communities in Canada. He has an active, collaborative and multi-disciplinary research agenda that includes optimal use of therapeutics in primary care, primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and stroke, knowledge transfer, health services research and population health.

Louise Pilote
Theme 2 co-leader

Dr. Louise Pilote is a Professor of Medicine at McGill University and the Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at McGill University. She holds a James McGill Chair and a PhD in Epidemiology at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Pilote’s research focus includes cardiovascular epidemiology, comparative effectiveness, outcomes research, health services research and clinical trials. She is the principal investigator for the GENESIS: an intercapacity enhancement team on gender and sex determinants of cardiovascular diseases funded by the Canadian Institute of Health research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation,. She has published over 250 manuscripts and has supervised over 30 graduate students.

View Investigator’s website.

Ian Graham
Knowledge Translation

Dr. Ian Graham is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa and Senior Scientist in the Clinical Epidemiology Program of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. From 2006-2012 he was on an interchange with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research where he held the position of Vice-President of the Knowledge Translation and Public Outreach. His research focuses on knowledge translation and strategies to increase implementation of evidence-informed practice. His KT research has focused on stroke care, heart failure, practice guidelines, decision support tools, as well as KT framework and model development.

Marie Lordkipanidze
Capacity Generation co-leader

Dr. Lordkipanidzé is assistant professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Université de Montréal and a Principal Investigator at the Montreal Heart Institute. Her major research interest is to bring platelet function testing and molecular biology to clinical settings with the aim of individualizing antiplatelet treatment to specific patient needs. Her current projects seek to bridge the gap between fundamental research into platelet activation and signalling and clinical outcomes in patients requiring long-term antiplatelet therapy. As a young investigator, Dr. Lordkipanidzé understands the challenges of a new career in academia, and is involved with the “Capacity Enhancement” committee within the Vascular Network.

View Investigator’s website.

Jean-Francois Tanguay
Capacity Generation co-leader

Director of the Coronary Unit, Cardiologist and Research Scientist at the Montreal Heart Institute. Dr. Jean-François Tanguay is currently Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Interventional Cardiology and MD-Research programs at the Université de Montréal. He was President of the Canadian Association of Interventional Cardiology (CAIC) from 2002-2005. He co-chaired the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Antiplatelet Guidelines Committee. He also co-directs the 23^rd Montreal Live Symposium in Partnership with TCT. His current research interests focus on improving vascular healing, stabilizing vulnerable plaque and reducing restenosis. His work contributed to the discovery of a P-Selectin inhibitor to reduce restenosis and prevent intra-stent restenosis. Dr Tanguay performed the first coronary implantation of a drug-eluting bioresorbable scaffold in North America in a patient treated at the Montreal Heart Institute. Dr. Tanguay is author or co-author of more than 350 scientific publications, abstracts and book chapters and reviewer for grants and scientific journals.

View Investigator’s website.

Sonia Anand
McMaster University

Todd Anderson
Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta

Dr. Anderson is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary, Head of the Department of Cardiac Sciences and the Director of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta. He is the current Merck Frosst Chair for Cardiovascular Research.

Dr. Anderson was awarded his medical degree from the University of Calgary in 1985 and then undertook residency training in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology in Calgary. He pursued further research training in coronary physiology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School and then returned to Calgary. He has been on staff since 1995.

Dr. Anderson has received funding from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, the Alberta Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Diabetes Association and numerous physician initiated industry grants. His current research interests include the assessment and treatment of endothelial dysfunction, cardiovascular risk factor assessment and treatment, interventional cardiology and diabetic endothelial dysfunction.

Stephen Archer
Queen’s University

Dr. Stephen Archer is a renowned cardiologist and physician scientist, accomplished author and dedicated educator. His research focus is on mechanism of oxygen sensing, mitochondrial biology and experimental therapeutics for pulmonary hypertension and cancer.

Having spent 12 years as a Chief of Cardiology at the University of Alberta and then at the University of Chicago, Dr. Archer returned to his medical school roots in 2012 to Queen’s University. He now serves as the Head of Medicine at Queen’s University, Hotel Dieu Hospital, Kingston General Hospital, and Providence Care. Directing a NIH- and CIHR-funded research lab, Dr. Archer and his associates study basic mechanisms of oxygen sensing in the vasculature and investigates the role of mitochondria, both as oxygen sensors and regulators of cell proliferation.

Dr. Archer’s clinical interests include pulmonary hypertension, persistent ductus arteriosus, strategies for improving cardiovascular care, and training the next generation of physician-scientists. He has published 200 papers and his translational cardiovascular research has been recognized with numerous awards, including being named the Chicago American Heart Association Coeur d’Or recipient for 2013.

View Investigator’s website.

Robert Beanlands
University of Ottawa Heart Institute

Dr. Robert Beanlands is the Chief and Vered Chair of the Division of Cardiology at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He received his MD from the University of Ottawa in 1983 (gold medalist). He is a cardiologist and an international leader in cardiovascular nuclear imaging as well as the founding Director of the Heart Institute’s National Cardiac PET Centre, the only PET facility in Canada dedicated to cardiovascular disease.

He is a Career Investigator supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and is the Tier 1 Chair in Cardiovascular Imaging Research (University of Ottawa). His research focus on the hearts metabolism, flow and cellular function has led to pioneering translational work that has impacted the understanding disease mechanisms, applications in patient care, health policy and guidelines in imaging. He has led several multicentre imaging research initiatives (PARR2, IMAGE-HF, CADRE Registry and is a Co-PI for the Canadian Atherosclerotic Imaging Network (CAIN)). He has more than 225 peer reviewed publications in this field. He has served on several committees/advisory boards for government, industry and professional organizations impacting healthcare policies and practice guidelines and serves as an Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Cardiology and the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology. He is a Professor in the Division of Cardiology (Department of Medicine), Department of Radiology and Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Beanlands is past-president of the Canadian Nuclear Cardiology Society, past Ontario Governor for the Amercian College of Cardiology and was the Scientific Program Chair and Annual Meeting Chair for the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. He is also the chair of the Heart and Stroke Foundation Scientific Review Committee, Treasurer of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and Co-Chair of the International Congress on Nuclear Cardiology and CT imaging. Recent Awards include Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) for Contributions to Canada, Hermann Blumgart Research Achievement Award for the Society of Nuclear Medicine (2013) and Canadian Cardiovascular Society Research Achievement Award (2015).

Brian Bennett
Queen’s University

Pascal-Nicolas Bernatchez
University of British Columbia

Dr. Pascal-Nicolas Bernatchez is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of British Columbia and Principal Investigator at the UBC Centre for Heart Lung Innovation. One of Dr. Bernatchez’s research topics focuses on studying the endothelium and endothelial function in health and disease, and develop novel therapeutically-relevant approaches to maximize the protective nature of endothelial function. Diseases of interest include atherosclerosis, hypertension, aortic aneurysms, diabetes and post-PCI reendothelialization. His other field of interest attempts to shed a new light on the role of vascular integrity in Muscular Dystrophy.  In partnership with the US-based Jain Foundation, the world leader in Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy type 2b research and patient management, Dr. Bernatchez’s team is currently testing novel therapies that target the vasculature in Muscular Dystrophy.

Dr. Bernatchez received a PhD degree from the Montreal Heart Institute and University of Montreal under the supervision of Dr. Martin Sirois. As a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and American Heart Association (AHA) fellow, he received post-doctoral training at Yale University under the mentorship of Dr. William Sessa. Dr. Bernatchez’s academic research program is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Jain Foundation.

Sandra Black
Sunnybrook Research Institute

Sandra E. Black, O.C., O.Ont., MD, FRCP(C), FRSC is an internationally known cognitive and stroke neurologist who holds the inaugural Brill Chair in Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. A leading clinical trialist in dementia, she is the current Executive Director of the Toronto Dementia Research Alliance. She is the Sunnybrook site director of the Heart & Stroke Foundation Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery and the Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program Director at Sunnybrook Research Institute.

In 2011 she was named to the Order of Ontario, cited for being as an assiduous physician leader and influential architect of the Ontario Stroke System, a continuum of specialized care from prevention to reintegration. She has authored/ co-authored over 460 publications [H index 89 (Google scholar), >26,000 citations) in a 25-year research career investigating brain imaging-behaviour relationships that have bridged dementia and stroke, with a recent focus on interactions of small vessel disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

She has earned numerous mentorship and research awards, including election to the Royal Society of Canada in 2012, cited for combining enormous dedication to patients with cutting-edge science. In 2015 she was awarded the Dean’s Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award by the Faculty of Medicine and was named an Officer in the Order of Canada for her contributions to Stroke, Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Dylan Burger
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Dr. Dylan Burger is a Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (Chronic Disease Program, Kidney Research Centre) and Assistant Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa. His research is supported by the Canadian Diabetes Association and seeks to understand mechanisms of vascular and renal injury with a focus on the role of extracellular vesicles. Dr. Burger has received several awards including the Amgen/Canadian Society of Nephrology New Investigator Lectureship, a KRESCENT New Investigator Award, and the International Society of Hypertension Forum Prize. Dr. Burger is a member and co-author on the upcoming Lancet Commission on Hypertension and has authored more than 40 publications. He currently sits on the International Society of Hypertension- New Investigator’s Committee and the American Heart Association Hypertension Council Professional Education Committee.

Dale Corbett
University of Ottawa

Dr. Dale Corbett is Professor of Neurosciences in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa and Scientific Director and CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery (CPSR). Prior to his relocation to the University of Ottawa in 2010, Dr. Corbett held a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Stroke and Neuroplasticity at Memorial University in St. John’s Newfoundland.

Dr. Corbett obtained his PhD from Concordia University followed by post-doctoral studies at McGill University. Subsequently, Dr. Corbett was a faculty member at Harvard University and also an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow from 1980-85. His laboratory is well known for pioneering research on the protective effects of prolonged, mild hypothermia that culminated in the use of « therapeutic hypothermia  » in the treatment of cardiac arrest and stroke. His current research concerns recovery of motor and cognitive function following stroke where he has made pivotal translational discoveries regarding the importance of early and intensive rehabilitation. He uses a variety of approaches to enhance neuroplasticity and stroke recovery including novel forms of rehabilitation, exercise and mobilization of endogenous neural precursor and stem cells. Related work focuses on exercise and cognition and the metabolic and vascular consequences of obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.

His research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the CPSR, the Canadian Vascular Network and the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration and Aging. He has published extensively in leading Neuroscience journals devoted to brain injury and repair.

Thais Coutinho
University of Ottawa Heart Institute

Dr. Thais Coutinho is a staff cardiologist at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. She received her MD from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2004. Shortly after, she moved to Rochester, Minnesota, USA where she completed residency training in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Vascular Medicine, advanced Echocardiography and research at the Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Coutinho is a young investigator whose research interests centre upon arterial diseases, with special emphasis on the role of arterial stiffness on cardiovascular performance and pathophysiology of important cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, aortic aneurysms and heart failure. She has had numerous manuscripts and presentations on these topics, and her contributions to the field have been recognized with several research awards from the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology and the Mayo Clinic.

View Investigator’s website.

Styliani Stella Daskalopoulou
McGill University Health Centre

Natalie Dayan
McGill University Health Centre

Claudio Del Grande
Université de Montréal

Claudio Del Grande is Research Associate in the Health Care Systems and Services research theme at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM). A sociologist by training, Claudio has used his interests in various research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, towards improving primary care organization and delivery. He has worked as research coordinator for the practice-based research network of the Department of Family and Emergency Medicine at University of Montreal and was also involved with Quebec’s Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) as a consultant researcher to develop quality indicators for the management of individuals suffering from chronic disease in primary care. Claudio is currently in the process of completing a PhD in Public Health at the University of Montreal on the representativeness of patient preferences for the management of vascular disease in primary care. His academic interests include health services research, patient engagement in healthcare organization and research, population health, and sociology of science.

Mark Eisenberg
McGill University

Dr. Mark Eisenberg is a tenured Professor of Medicine at McGill University, Staff Cardiologist at the Jewish General Hospital (JGH), Associate Member of the McGill Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and was Director of Clinical Research of the McGill Cardiology Fellowship Program for 18 years. In addition to clinical responsibilities, he is the Director of the JGH’s Cardiovascular Health Services Research Group and a PI at the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology. He has a Masters of Management in International Health Leadership and is deeply committed to training the next generation of clinician scientists, publishing “The Physician Scientist’s Career Guide” in 2010. His research interests include primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease, health services and outcomes research, smoking cessation, clinical trials, and meta-analyses. He has published over 220 articles in peer-reviewed journals and participated in multiple collaborative works.

View Investigator’s website.

Jason Fish
University Health Network

Dr. Jason Fish has been a Scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto since 2010, and is the Canada Research Chair in Vascular Cell and Molecular Biology. The Fish lab investigates the molecular mechanisms that control endothelial cell biology. His lab is seeking to decipher the signaling pathways and downstream transcriptional mediators that control responses to differentiation signals (e.g. artery/vein specification and angiogenesis) as well as pro-inflammatory factors. Their lab has identified important roles for noncoding RNAs such as microRNAs in modulating signaling pathways in endothelial cells.

Matthias Friedrich
Montreal Heart Institute

Matthias Friedrich earned his MD at the Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen, Germany and completed his training as an internist and cardiologist at the Charité University Medicine Center, Humboldt University in Berlin. He is considered a world expert in the clinical application of cardiovascular MR (CMR).

In 2004, he moved to Calgary, Canada and formed one of the largest North American CMR programs, which he directed until 2011. From 2011 to 2015, he was Director of the CMR program at the Montreal Heart Institute and Chair in Cardiac Imaging with the Université de Montréal. Since June 2015, he is Full Professor of Medicine with the Departments of Cardiology and Diagnostic Radiology at the McGill University in Montreal and Chief, Cardiovascular Imaging at the McGill University Health Centre. He is also Professor of Medicine with the Heidelberg University in Germany.

His research interest focuses on new CMR approaches for diagnosing cardiovascular disease, especially on identifying and developing new diagnostic targets in the heart muscle. He authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications. He is member of international writing groups, editorial boards and grant review committees in Europe and North America.

He has also led the development of the market-leading software for the clinical and scientific evaluation of CMR scans. Dr. Friedrich was the Founding President of the Canadian Society for Cardiovascular MR and is the President-Elect of the international Society for CMR (SCMR).

Anthony Gramolini
University of Toronto

Dr. Gramolini is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Translational Biology and Engineering Program at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research in the University of Toronto. Dr. Gramolini is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Proteomics and Molecular Therapeutics. He has received the Boehringer Ingelheim New Investigator award, the Heart and Stroke Foundation New Investigator Award, and the John Polanyi Prize.

Dr. Gramolini is a leading edge cardiovascular proteomic expert, and heads the Cardiovascular Proteomics Laboratory at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the discovery of novel molecular therapeutics and diagnostics for muscle diseases utilizing human tissue, blood, and stem cells, alongside animal models to investigate disease states and progression. His research applies advanced cellular imaging, proteomics, and cell biological approaches.

He has published 89 papers, given 59 invited seminars and been awarded 22 peer-reviewed operating grants. His work has been published in Nature, Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Communications, Developmental Cell, Circulation, J Clinical Investigation, and PNAS. He has been an external reviewer of international proteomic initiatives originating in Singapore, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, and has been a scientific reviewer for CIHR, Alberta Heritage, and Heart & Stroke Canada. He has been invited to participate as an International Member on the NHLBI Proteomics Advisory Committee, and HUPO (Human Proteomics Organization) Cardiovascular Initiative.

Edith Hamel
McGill University

Edith Hamel’s research focuses on the interactions that occur between neurons, astrocytes and brain vessels to assure a proper blood supply to activated brain areas, a phenomenon known as “neurovascular coupling”. These interactions are at the basis of the signals used in brain imaging studies to map brain activity in physiological and pathological conditions. The underlying cellular mechanisms and chemical mediators of these signals are poorly understood, and the impact of a diseased cerebral circulation on neuronal dysfunction leading to cognitive failure as seen in Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia is virtually unknown.

We use in vivo simulation of selected brain pathways to induce blood flow changes; we measure cerebrovascular function and assess structural changes of the brain vessels. Our goal is to understand how brain neurons control local cerebral perfusion, how this relationship is altered in pathological conditions, and how it can be restored by targeted therapy.

View Investigator’s website.

Robert Hegele
Robarts Research Institute

Robert Hegele is a Distinguished University Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry, Western University, and Director of the Lipid Genetics Clinic and the London Regional Genomics Centre at Robarts Research Institute. He holds the Jacob J. Wolfe Distinguished Medical Research Chair, The Edith Schulich Vinet Medical Research Chair and the Martha Blackburn Chair in Cardiovascular Research.

His lab studies the genetics of lipids, diabetes and heart disease. His laboratory has discovered the molecular genetic basis of 15 different human diseases, and in collaboration with others has discovered the genetic basis of 9 others.

He cares for ~2000 patients in his lipid clinic at University Hospital in London, Ontario. He was first in Canada or North America to use five investigational medications that are now routinely available by prescription for treatment of high cholesterol and diabetes.

He has published more than 580 papers, which have been cited more than 17,000 times in the medical literature. He is listed in the ISI database of the top 1% of highly cited scientists in the world. He has contributed to recent national clinical practice guidelines for cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes, and to international guidelines on familial hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia. He has trained many physicians, medical students and graduate students.

Benjamin Hibbert
University of Ottawa Heart Institute

Benjamin Hibbert, MD, PhD, is an Interventional Cardiologist and Director of the Vascular Biology and Experimental Medicine Laboratory. He is also Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Hibbert earned his Doctorate in Medicine in 2006, followed by an Internal Medicine residency at the University of Ottawa. He subsequently went on to complete his Cardiology training and the Clinician Investigator Program while obtaining his PhD in Biochemistry – both at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Finally, he completed a fellowship in Interventional Cardiology from 2013-2015 with an interest in structural left atrial procedures (ASD & PFO closure, LAA closure, PTMV and Mitraclip). He joined on staff at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in 2015.

Dr. Hibbert’s clinical interests include both clinical and basic science research projects with a goal of performing truly translational research. His outcome based research has been performed clinically in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions or structural heart disease procedures. Topics of interest include biomarker development, adjuvant pharmacotherapy (antiplatelets, antithrombotics etc.) and impact of device selection on clinical outcomes.

Dr. Hibbert’s laboratory focuses on mechanisms involved in pathologic arterial remodeling in the development of transplant vasculopathy, in-stent restenosis, and atherosclerosis – with a goal of identifying therapeutic targets.

Mansoor Husain
Toronto General Research Institute

Dr. Mansoor Husain is the Director of the Toronto General Research Institute at the University Health Network (UHN). He joined UHN as a Cardiologist, Clinician-Scientist in 1998 and continues to split his time between his research laboratory, Director duties and clinical work.

Dr. Husain’s research is focused on elucidating the molecular bases of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, atherosclerosis and heart failure, with a particular emphasis on identifying therapeutic targets involved in pathophysiology. Their approaches encompass both cell culture-based experimental systems and tissue-specific transgenic mouse models of human cardiovascular disease.

Currently, he leads specific projects in two areas: (1) the role played by c-Myb in the proliferation and differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells, and (2) the cardiovascular biology of glucagon-like peptides.

View Investigator’s website.

Linda Kelloway
Ontario Stroke Network

Linda is a Registered Nurse and been the Ontario Stroke Network Best Practices Leader since January 2009 focused on establishing Ontario standards, resources and tools for implementation of stroke best practices including paramedic medical redirect protocols, LHIN Telestroke planning framework and professional development. Linda enables achievement of mandates of provincial committees including Ontario Telestroke Steering Committee and the Best Practice Secondary Prevention/ Acute Care Subcommittee and Ontario Vascular Health Strategy. Linda has participated as co-investigator of CIHR funded research teams including determining gaps and opportunities related to aphasia best practices and stroke rehabilitation and patients with multimorbities.

Linda was Co-Chair of the Canadian Best Practice Recommendations for Stroke Care: Stroke Prevention Update 2012 and Panel Lead for Registered Nurses Association of Ontario Best Practice Guideline: Stroke Assessment Across the Continuum of Care. Linda has Master of Nursing from University of Toronto and Certification in Neuroscience Nursing from Canadian Nurses Association.

View Investigator’s website.

Nadia Khan
University of British Colombia

Jonathan Kimmelman
McGill University

Hans Krueger
H. Krueger & Associates

Finlay McAlister
University of Alberta

Dr. McAlister is a general internist and Senior Health Scholar of Alberta Innovates- Health Solutions at the University of Alberta. Dr. McAlister obtained his MD at the University of Alberta in 1990 and completed his general internal medicine residency at the University of Alberta in 1994. He completed his MSc in Epidemiology from the University of Ottawa in 1998 and did post-doctoral training in clinical epidemiology at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Oxford University, UK.

Dr. McAlister’s research has included randomized trials, prospective cohort studies, systematic reviews, and data linkage studies using various administrative datasets to answer health services research questions. He attends on the general medicine Clinical Teaching Units and the Heart Failure Clinic at the University of Alberta Hospital, has published over 360 peer-reviewed manuscripts, has received the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Gold Medal for Research (2005), Senior Investigator Awards from Hypertension Canada (2011) and the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine (2013), is a Killam Professor at the University of Alberta, and is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. He is past-President of the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine and has co-chaired the Canadian Hypertension Education Program Outcomes Research Task Force.

Evangelos Michelakis
University of Alberta

Anne-Monique Nuyt
Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center

Anne Monique Nuyt is a neonatologist at CHU Ste-Justine, Université de Montréal. She received her medical degree and pediatric residency training at the Université de Sherbrooke (QC, Canada), and her subspecialty in Neonatal-Perinatal medicine from McGill University (93). Supported by the Medical Research Council of Canada, she pursued a research fellowship at the University of Iowa and at the College de France-INSERM. She was appointed (98) as clinician-scientist at the CHU Ste Justine – Université de Montréal, where she is currently Professor of Pediatrics, Head of the Division of Neonatology, Head of the Feto-maternal and Neonatal Research Axis of the CHU Ste Justine Research Center and Associated Scientific Director for CARTaGENE.

Her research is mainly supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Dr Nuyt was awarded number of prizes for her work and was President of the Quebec Hypertension Society.

Dr Nuyt studies mechanisms of developmental programming of hypertension and cardiovascular dysfunction in children and adults who were born preterm, with emphasis on the role of oxidative stress and of adverse antenatal and neonatal conditions. Her translational research program spans from experimental animal work, to clinical as well as epidemiological studies.

Edward O’Brien
Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta

The O’Brien Vascular Biology Lab is interested in understanding the molecular mechanism that contribute to atherosclerosis vascular disease, with a special focus on the role of the Heat Shock protein 27 (HSP27). The Lab recently relocated to the University of Calgary from the Ottawa Heart Institute, where we have played a seminal role in establishing an important role for HSP27 as a novel vascular protective factor that reduces the accumulation of cholesterol in the vessel wall, attenuates inflammation and represents not only a potential new therapy for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis, but also a biomarker that may identify patients at risk for heart attack, strokes or cardiovascular death.

View Investigator’s website.

Christina O’Callaghan
Ontario Stroke Network

Chris O’Callaghan was trained as a physiotherapist at Curtin University in Western Australia. In the last 30 years Chris has held progressive health care leadership roles. In October 2008 Chris assumed the role as the inaugural Executive Director of the Ontario Stroke Network (OSN). The OSN provides provincial leadership and coordination for Ontario’s 11 Regional Stroke Networks and the successful Ontario Stroke Evaluation Program. In addition the OSN leads and/or supports provincial initiatives including: the Strategy for Patient Orientated Research Stroke Quality Based Procedures Demonstration Project; and, in partnership with Heart and Stroke and the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario the Ontario Integrated Vascular Health Strategy. Under Chris tenure the OSN has made progress toward its vision of “fewer strokes, better outcomes” realizing steady improvements in hospitalization and mortality rates and access to best practices.

View Investigator’s website.

Blair O’Neill
University of Alberta

Dr. Blair O’Neill is the Senior Medical Director of the Cardiovascular Health and Stroke Clinical Network (SCN) at Alberta Health Services, and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Alberta Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute. He was the President of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society from 2012-2014. Dr. O’Neill is actively involved in clinical research in the area of cardiovascular health and prevention, health systems, and health services and outcomes research, and has been a principal investigator in many trials concerning the management of acute coronary syndromes, hyperlipidemia, endothelial dysfunction, and the use of new devices in interventional cardiology. His role in the SCN involves engaging clinical experts, users, patients, and members of the public to design service models and implementation strategies to achieve goals as well as to implement, evaluate, and optimize service delivery models.

Mark Ormiston
Queen’s University

Dr. Ormiston is an Assistant Professor at Queen’s University and a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Regenerative Cardiovascular Medicine. Prior to beginning his position at Queen’s, he obtained a PhD from the University of Toronto under the supervision of Drs. Duncan Stewart and David Courtman (2005-2009), followed by CIHR and British Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships at the University of Cambridge in the laboratory of Professor Nicholas Morrell (2009-2015).

The objectives of Dr. Ormiston’s research program are (i) to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which circulating cells of the immune system influence vascular homeostasis and (ii) to translate these discoveries into novel, cell-based immunotherapies for diseases of pathological vascular remodeling. This work is centered on the study of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a disease of obstructive pulmonary vascular remodeling that is linked to immune dysfunction, both in its idiopathic form and in the setting of autoimmune diseases and viral infection. Although idiopathic PAH is a rare disease, a similar immune component has also been identified in the pathobiology of other vascular disorders, including pre-eclampsia and tumor angiogenesis. Among these conditions, PAH is a notably attractive disease to study due to the current lack of viable treatment options and a strong association with loss-of-function mutations in the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) type II receptor (BMPR-II), a receptor of the transforming growth factor-b (TGFb) superfamily. Identification of the link between PAH and BMPR-II haploinsufficiency makes PAH an ideal candidate for proof-of-concept, cell-based therapeutic strategies involving targeted mutation correction.

Ernesto Schiffrin
Hypertension Canada

Dr. Ernesto Schiffrin is Physician-in-Chief of the Jewish General Hospital and holds a Canada Research Chair in Hypertension and Vascular Research. He is Professor and Vice-Chair (Research), Department of Medicine, McGill University. His research deals with mechanisms and treatment of high blood pressure, from molecules and cells to humans. He is author of more than 500 peer-reviewed publications, many book chapters and is editor of 3 published books, and 1 in preparation, on molecular and clinical aspects of vascular disease and hypertension.

Dr. Schiffrin has been President of the Canadian Hypertension Society (1991-92), Chair of the High Blood Pressure Research Council of the American Heart Association (2002-2004), President of the InterAmerican Society of Hypertension (2005-2007) and President of the Quebec Hypertension Society (2009-2011). Dr. Schiffrin has been Vice-President (2010-2012) and is now President of the International Society of Hypertension (2012-2014) and President of Hypertension Canada (2013-1014). Dr. Schiffrin has been Associate Editor of Hypertension (AHA journal) since 2003.

Kenny Schlosser
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Eric Smith
University of Calgary

Dr. Smith is Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Calgary and holder of the Katthy Taylor Chair in Vascular Dementia Research. He graduated from McGill University and received his training in neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women’s Hospital, teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School. He has a Master’s degree in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Smith is the Medical Director of the Cognitive Neurosciences Clinic in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Foothills Medical Centre. His research uses neuroimaging to investigate the epidemiology of vascular contributions to age-related cognitive decline and dementia. Dr. Smith leads brain imaging studies embedded within large community cohorts including the PURE-MIND study and Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds study.

View Investigator’s website.

Sheldon Tobe
Sunnybrook Research Institute

Rhian Touyz
University of Glasgow

Dr. Touyz is a Professor and Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences and British Heart Foundation (BHF) Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Glasgow. She also directs the BHF Centre of Research Excellence in Vascular Science and Medicine. She is a clinician-scientist focusing on hypertension research, and is an honorary consultant at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. She was the Canada Research Chair in Hypertension at the Kidney Research Centre, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, University of Ottawa until 2011 when she moved to Glasgow.

Dr. Touyz received her BSc(Hons) (1980), MBBCh (1984), MSc (1986) and PhD (1992) in South Africa. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Clinical Research Institute in Montreal, where she worked with Ernesto Schiffrin. She has received numerous awards, including the Dahl Award (American Heart Association (AHA)), Robert M. Berne Distinguished Award (American Physiological Society), RD Wright Award (BP Research Council, Australia), and Harriet Dustan Research Award (AHA). Dr. Touyz co-chaired the Canadian Hypertension Education Program for clinical guidelines.

She is past President of the Canadian Hypertension Society, past Chair of the High Blood Pressure Research Council (AHA), and current President of the International Society of Hypertension. She is Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Science, Deputy Editor of Hypertension, and Associate Editor of Pharmacological Reviews. She has trained 45 graduate students and has published over 365 peer-reviewed papers. Her research interests include 1) molecular mechanisms, redox signaling and vascular biology of hypertension; 2) vascular mechanisms of anti-angiogenic drug-induced hypertension, and 3) vascular biology of TRPM channels. She has a particular interest in translational research.

Jack Tu
Sunnybrook Research Institute

Dr. Jack V. Tu is a clinician-scientist, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, and is an attending physician in the Division of Cardiology at the Sunnybrook Schulich Heart Centre in Toronto, Ontario.

An internationally-recognized researcher, he has published over 350 peer-reviewed medical journal articles including multiple first-authored articles in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association; held over $15 million dollars in peer-reviewed grants as a principal investigator from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Heart and Stroke Foundation, and other funding agencies; and has received multiple research awards including the CIHR national/international award for excellence in knowledge translation.

He leads the cardiovascular research program at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and the Sunnybrook Research Institute. His current research is focused on measuring and improving the quality of cardiovascular care in Canada with a focus on geographical and ethnic disparities in the incidence of cardiovascular disease.

Karen Tu
University of Toronto

Karen Tu, MD, MSc, is a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at University of Toronto, with a cross appointment in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and a staff family physician at University Health Network-Toronto Western Hospital Family Health Team.

She is the founder of the Electronic Medical Record Administrative data Linked Database (EMRALD) and has unique insights into the analysis of primary care electronic medical record (EMR) data. EMRALD is a collection of family physician EMR data of over 350 physicians and 400,000 patients distributed throughout Ontario. She has extensive experience and expertise in the use of primary care EMR data, administrative data and the validation of administrative data algorithms for the identification of common chronic diseases using EMRALD as a reference standard.

She is one of the leading Canadian primary care researchers in the areas of hypertension, the primary care management of cardiovascular diseases and the analysis of primary care EMR data. She is also is experienced in the feedback of information to family physicians and the measurement of family physician adherence to guidelines.

She has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and has a has a cumulative total of $4.7 M as a Principal or Co Principal Investigator and over $26.8 as a Co-Investigator from agencies such as CIHR, Heart & Stroke Foundation (HSF), Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), and the Ministry of Health (MOHLTC).

Richard Weisel
Toronto General Research Institute

Dr.Weisel is a Cardiovascular Surgeon at the Toronto General Hospital, a Senior Scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute and a Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Toronto. He trained in General Surgery at Boston University where he was an NIH trainee in Academic Surgery. He completed a residency in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery in Toronto in 1978 and has been a member of the Division since then. He recently completed his terms as Chairman of the University Division and Director of the Research Institute. In 2014 he became the Editor of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and the Chairman of the Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network.

In addition to cardiac surgery, he devoted his career to basic and clinical investigations. His experimental studies on cardioplegic protection led to a series of clinical trials which have established currently employed techniques. In addition, he has participated in a number of multi-national clinical trials evaluating new methods to improve outcomes after cardiac surgery.

He and Professor Ren-Ke Li developed methods to precondition human cardiomyocytes and then discovered that the implantation of these cells prevented heart failure after coronary occlusion. The early animal studies stimulated extensive clinical trials of stem cell therapy in Toronto and worldwide. Their recent studies demonstrated that older patients with stem cell dysfunction require enhanced cells combined with biodegradable biomaterials to achieve improvements in ventricular function after a myocardial infarction. These new therapies are also undergoing clinical evaluation.

Most important, Dr Weisel trained two generations of Cardiac Surgical Scientists who have assumed leadership positions in academic cardiac surgery in Canada and around the world.

Phil Wells
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Dr. Wells received his medical school education and specialty training in Internal Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He then studied Hematology at McMaster University, concentrating on the special problems of venous thrombosis (blood clots in the veins). He pioneered the concept of clinical prediction rules to assist in the diagnosis of patients with suspected deep vein thrombosis and/or pulmonary embolism. For each of these diseases he embodied these prediction rules in valuable algorithms and they are now known as the “Wells Model for DVT” and the “Wells Model for PE”. They are currently used world-wide in the diagnostic process for these illnesses and are incorporated into many National and Organizational guidelines.

As part of building his clinical practice, he established the Thrombosis Treatment and Assessment Unit at The Ottawa Hospital. In March 2009 Dr. Wells assumed the position of Chief/Chair of the Department of Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa.

Graham Wright
Sunnybrook Research Institute

Graham A. Wright, PhD is the Director of the Schulich Heart Research Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, a senior scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute, and a professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Wright was appointed the Canada Research Chair in Imaging for Cardiovascular Therapeutics in 2010. He also recently served as President of the International MR Angiography Club and Chair of the Interventional Study Group of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

The research focus of Dr. Wright’s group is cardiovascular imaging, with an emphasis on MRI. This effort includes basic biophysics to characterize the relationship between MR signals and underlying pathophysiology in blood and tissue; engineering to develop more effective methods and devices to acquire, analyze, and visualize medical images; and application of these tools to assessment, treatment planning, and therapy guidance in ischemic and structural heart diseases, complex arrhythmias, and peripheral vascular diseases.

Together with trainees and collaborators, he has published over 144 peer-reviewed papers and 400 conference abstracts, which have garnered numerous awards and resulted in 20 patents. For this work, he has received substantial peer-reviewed infrastructure and operating grant funding.

JoAnne Arcand
University of Toronto

JoAnne is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. She has with population health and clinical expertise in dietary sodium, nutrition, and chronic disease, with emphasis on cardiovascular diseases. JoAnne completed her PhD and postdoctoral training at the University of Toronto in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. Her research includes studies related to dietary sodium in the clinical settings of hypertension and heart failure, as well as policy-driven public health research evaluating national nutrition strategies related to dietary sodium and trans fat reduction. Knowledge translation and dissemination is also an important component of her research program, which led her to the development of an online dietary sodium-screening tool, the Sodium Calculator (www.projectbiglife.ca/sodium). She has presented her work nationally and internationally to academics, policy makers and to the food industry and has received several research awards, the most recent being a Notable Achievement Award in Dietary Salt Reduction from the World Hypertension League.

Liam Brunham
University of British Columbia

Dr. Liam Brunham is a Principal Investigator at the UBC Centre for Heart Lung Innovation. Dr. Brunham is a general internist with a focus on clinical lipidology and is an attending physician at the Health Heart Program Prevention clinic at St. Paul’s hospital, one of the largest specialty lipid clinics in Canada. Dr. Brunham’s research focuses on understanding how changes in specific genes contribute to differences in drug-response as well as to alterations in plasma lipid levels and their relationship to metabolic and cardiovascular disease. His laboratory uses cutting-edge approaches in human genetics including genome-wide association studies and next-generation sequencing to investigate the role of genetic variation in these phenotypes. His laboratory also uses genome-editing tools and stem-cell based cellular models to dissect the functional impact of genetic variants and investigate molecular mechanisms underlying adverse drug reactions.

Dr. Brunham graduated from medical school at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Brunham completed his PhD at UBC under the supervision of Dr. Michael Hayden in Medical Genetics and was awarded the Governor’s General’s gold medal, the most prestigious award offered to graduating doctoral students at Canadian Universities. His laboratory is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.

Thais Coutinho
University of Ottawa Heart Institute

Dr. Thais Coutinho is a staff cardiologist at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. She received her MD from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2004. Shortly after, she moved to Rochester, Minnesota, USA where she completed residency training in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Vascular Medicine, advanced Echocardiography and research at the Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Coutinho is a young investigator whose research interests centre upon arterial diseases, with special emphasis on the role of arterial stiffness on cardiovascular performance and pathophysiology of important cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, aortic aneurysms and heart failure. She has had numerous manuscripts and presentations on these topics, and her contributions to the field have been recognized with several research awards from the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology and the Mayo Clinic.

View Investigator’s website.

Caroline Kramer
Mount Sinai Hospital – University of Toronto

Sylvia Santosa
Concordia University

Dr. Santosa is a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Clinical Nutrition. Dr. Santosa joined the Department of Exercise Science in January of 2011 following a 3.5 year research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.  She earned her Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from McGill University and completed her dietetic internship at the McGill University Health Centers. Dr. Santosa is a registered dietitian through her membership in the College of Dietitians of Ontario. The goal of Dr. Santosa’s research program is to identify the long-term effects of obesity, from the cell to the entire body. Her research applies techniques in biology, physiology and nutrition to study the effects of obesity that contribute to weight gain and disease.

Christopher West
International Collaboration On Repair Discoveries – University of British Columbia

Angelique Berg
Hypertension Canada

Angelique Berg is a business development and marketing executive with over 20 years experience spanning both profit and non-profit health sectors. Her leadership experience includes roles in public and government relations, program and volunteer management, and over 15 years in fundraising.

Angelique has held executive positions in the charitable health sector, including Osteoporosis Canada, the Canadian Diabetes Association, and the Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation. She has served on health sector collaborations that accelerated health care system and patient care improvements, including the Wait Times Alliance, the Alliance for the Canadian Arthritis Program, and the Bone and Joint Decade Canada. An active ambassador for the sector, she has served as a Steering Committee member of the Health Charities Coalition of Canada, and is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Canadian Society for Association Executives. Angelique volunteers with the Canadian Orthopaedic Association, as well as with personal interest causes, including Halton Region’s Project Autism, and a WWII RCAF veterans’ association.

Angelique is a strategic, collaborative leader with a proven track record of achieving revenue targets through creating high performance teams. She is known for her dedication to excellence in charitable management, and for her passion to improve health for a thriving, productive society.

Anne Ferguson
Canadian Cardiovascular Society

Katie Lafferty
HSF Partnership for Stroke Recovery

Prior to joining the CPSR in April 2013, Katie served for 12 years as the founding Executive Director of the Canadian Stroke Network (CSN), a non-profit entity funded by the Networks of Centres of Excellence program with a focus on reducing the impact of stroke on Canadians. In addition to overseeing the research, training, knowledge translation and management operations of the CSN, Katie led the CSN through the inception of the Canadian Stroke Strategy in 2003, a successful renewal and increase of federal funding in 2005, and the inaugural Canadian Stroke Congress in 2010 followed by three subsequent congresses.

In 2006, Katie and her husband founded M.S. Watson Healthcare Inc., and have subsequently started up two successful independent pharmacies in Ottawa under the name of Watson’s Pharmacy and Compounding Centre. As co-owner, Katie oversees marketing, finance, and human resources for the business. Prior to the CSN, Katie was a Principal Consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Washington D.C. and London, England, serving a wide range of private and public sector clients.

Katie is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Public Health Association for which she also served as Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Maternal Infant Child & Youth Research Network and a member of the Board and finance committee of BioFuelNet, a research network focused on the growth of the biofuel industry.

Katie holds a BSc in biology from Queen’s University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2010, Katie was recognized by the Ottawa Business Journal as one of Ottawa’s “Top 40 under 40” for her contributions in the health sector.

View Investigator’s website.

Patrice Lindsay
Heart and Stroke Foundation

Dr. Lindsay is currently the Director of Best Practices and Performance, Stroke at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, where she leads the development of stroke best practice guidelines, knowledge translation and implementation strategies; conducts ongoing quality monitoring and reporting for the HSF Quality of Stroke Care in Canada series; and participates in resource development for stroke patients and families at all ages and stages of the stroke journey.

She is a respected expert member of several stroke related committees, including the World Stroke Organization Board of Directors, the International Alliance for Paediatric Stroke board, and the Young Stroke Inc. Medical Advisory Board. Dr. Lindsay is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for her efforts to improve stroke care and outcomes in Canada and internationally.

Dr. Lindsay has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Western Ontario and completed her PhD in Health Services Research/Evaluation and Outcomes at the University of Toronto.

Shirley Mei
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute – Management Team

Heather King-Andrews
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute – Management Team

Carolyn Pullen
Heart and Stroke Foundation