In the Media

The media regularly turns to our healthcare professionals for their expertise on a wide range of important heart health topics.

Here is a selection of recent news items featuring the Heart Institute and its experts.

Please note this page is updated regularly. Linked content is available in the language in which it was published.

  • CTV National News Medical Correspondent Avis Favaro reports on a study co-led by Kelly Cobey, PhD, of the Heart Institute that found only three per cent of Canadian human research trials testing new drug treatments or therapies meet all three international criteria that ensure fair and timely sharing of results for all to learn from.
  • Jodi Edwards, PhD, of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute would like to see widespread use of transcranial magnetic brain stimulation therapy in stroke patients, if the results of ongoing trials, like the one at Élisabeth Bruyère Hospital, are positive, writes the Ottawa Citizen.

  • Experts estimate that vaccines against Covid-19 have saved millions of lives during the pandemic, yet false information about their safety continues to surface online. AFP Fact Check spoke with experts (including Dr. Peter Liu of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute) and reviewed multiple scientific studies confirming that, while the vaccines can have adverse effects, severe cases are extremely rare.

  • With funding from the Institute of Gender and Health of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Women and Gender Equality Canada, the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance (CWHHA) is recognized as the country’s women’s cardiovascular health hub. Kerri-Anne Mullen, PhD, interim chair of the CWHHA and director of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Centre at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, spoke to The Ottawa Citizen about an initiative that aims to close the heart health gender gap.   
  • Hassan Mir, MD, fields calls from listeners about the health impacts of vaping products on CBC’s Ontario Today.
  • On CBC’s Ottawa Morning with Robyn Bresnahan, smoking cessation expert Andrew Pipe, MD, calls for stronger action from regulators.

  • “What Canada really needs right now is a national strategy that will address the education piece, that will address the research piece, and will address the care and recovery piece,” Thais Coutinho, MD, tells The Canadian Press ahead of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Summit in Vancouver, BC.

  • “For the first time in decades, life expectancy fell below 75 years for American men in 2021 due to COVID, and cardiac events account for 4.1% of this decline,” Marc Ruel, MD, of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute told Le Devoir (French) earlier in March.

  • Cardiologists, including Peter Liu, MD, of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, weigh in on whether COVID-19 or vaccines pose a greater risk of heart problems (CTV News Channel).

  • University of Ottawa Heart Institute researchers hope to close the gender gaps in cardiovascular disease prevention and care by establishing a network for women’s heart health, Postmedia reports.

  • Vincent Chan, MD, Ottawa Heart Institute cardiac surgeon and Heart Month ambassador, says “the only life worth living is one lived for others.”