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With roughly half a million Canadians now living with heart failure, the condition is an increasingly common one that can seriously impact an individual’s quality of life. Even when appropriately treated, hospital admission and readmission rates are stubbornly high. George Wells, Director of the

Dr. Frans Leenen is the Director of the Hypertension Clinic and Hypertension Research at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. In 2008, he and fellow Heart Institute researcher Dr. George Fodor led the Ontario Survey on the Prevalence and Control of Hypertension, the most in-depth study of high

Julie Rutberg, Genetic Counsellor at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute since 2005, has been elected incoming President of the Canadian Association of Genetic Counsellors (CAGC). In her new position, she and the CAGC’s Board of Directors plan to tackle several big-picture questions about the

The State of the Science Lecture on Women and Heart Disease by Anne Rosenfeld of the Oregon Health Sciences University made it clear that there is much to learn about the ways the disease is unique to women. What we do know indicates that risk, symptoms, progression and treatment of CVD are all

The CARDIoGRAM consortium, of which the Heart Institute is a founding member, reported finding 13 new genetic regions associated with increased risk for coronary artery disease and heart attack. CARDIoGRAM brings together research teams from around the world to pool data sets and increase their

Following Burgon’s talk at the International Forum, Philip Devereaux of McMaster University spoke about Canada’s unique place in the world of cardiovascular medicine. Not only is cardiovascular disease (CVD) the leading cause of death globally but by 2020, the incidence in developing countries is

Coronary artery disease is an inflammatory condition characterized by plaque deposits, which can rupture, causing heart attack and stroke. The Holy Grail for researchers remains finding a way to non-invasively determine which plaques are at risk for rupture. Several graduate students discussed

Dr. Michel Le May, Director of the Heart Institute Regional STEMI Program, discussed the impact of bleeding on mortality in patients referred to primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI; angioplasty and stenting) through the STEMI heart attack program. Patients who had a major or minor

In a featured research presentation, surgical resident Dr. Joel Price discussed the use of a low-tech simulator to give trainee surgeons after-hours practice time to hone their technique. Surgical skills are usually learned directly on patients in the OR, but a variety of evolving issues are making

A review of 25 years of heart transplant cases showed that the surgical procedure is a highly effective form of treatment. Cardiac surgeon Dr. Marc Ruel presented findings from 461 Heart Institute transplant patients showing that survival rates are high. This is particularly true over the past