Canada’s new and improved heart health guideline has arrived

November 7, 2022

Heart Institute’s chief scientific officer among authors of cardiovascular health recommendations for Canadian health providers

Canadian clinicians can now find 83 recommendations for managing heart disease in one resource targeting primary care and other health care providers.

Peter Liu, MD, chief scientific officer and vice-president of research at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI), is one author of the Canadian Cardiovascular Harmonized National Guideline Endeavour (C-CHANGE) published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

“Clinicians are rightly concerned that there are too many guidelines with too many individual recommendations to be practical and useful for daily use, particularly in primary care.  Typical patients with multiple illnesses require the access to many guidelines at the same time, and some recommendations are not harmonized and often seem contradictory,” says Dr. Peter Liu, Chief Scientific Director at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, and a senior author of the latest C-CHANGE guideline. “We hope this 4th update to the very popular C-CHANGE guideline will further meet the needs of health professionals and patients, to prevent and treat cardiovascular conditions and associated brain health with a simple harmonized approach.”

C-CHANGE includes 48 new or revised recommendations from 11 cardiovascular-focused guideline groups from across the country. It contains actionable recommendations for Canadian adults with or at risk of cardiovascular disease, including:

  1. People with obesity, diabetes or hypertension
  2. People with dyslipidemia, atherosclerotic vascular disease or heart failure
  3. People with atrial fibrillation, stroke or dementia

The guideline also includes health behaviour recommendations for all Canadians to address risk factors for these conditions, such as dietary, smoking and physical activity considerations.

To learn more, read the complete news release available on the CMAJ website.

For media inquiries or to coordinate an interview with Dr. Peter Liu of the UOHI, please contact the liaison named below.

Media contact

Leigh B. Morris
Communications Officer
University of Ottawa Heart Institute
613-316-6409 (cell)
lmorris@ottawaheart.ca