Steering Committee

We are excited to announce that our Co-Chairs for the 2019 International Ottawa Heart Conference will be Dr. Peter Liu and Dr. Jodi Edwards.

This year, the conference Chairs are pleased to offer an exciting scientific program highlighting the innovative and rapidly evolving field of Big Data in Cardiovascular Disease. We hope you will join us for a thought-provoking day that will offer you a glimpse into the future of data science and its potential to impact on clinical care in cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Peter Liu is the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI), and Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Liu is a translational scientist with a pre-clinical laboratory research program, is a practising cardiologist leading clinical trials, as well as engaged in knowledge translation activities. He is well known in Canada and internationally for his pioneering research and will have influence to attract stellar speakers and researchers in this thematic area. Dr. Liu is a leading clinician-scientist with expertise in heart failure and biomarkers.

Dr. Jodi Edwards is a Scientist and Director of the Brain and Heart Nexus Research Program at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and an Assistant Professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Edwards’ research program utilizes clinical and administrative data from population-based databases to evaluate the independent and cumulative contributions of unexplored cardiac risk factors to brain diseases , with a focus on associations between markers of early cardiac remodelling and clinical outcomes including stroke, atrial fibrillation, cognitive decline and dementia.  Her affiliation with IC/ES uniquely positions her to contribute to the development of this conference program, focusing on big data in healthcare, particularly cardiovascular disease.

Steering Committee Members

Han Kim, PhD

Scientist and Director, Functional Genetics and Metabolism Laboratory, University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Assistant Professor , Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa

Dr. Han Kim’s research program focuses on genetic and metabolic regulation of heart development, function and disease, with an emphasis on obesity, diabetes and heart failure. He is interested in the molecular function and mechanism of Irx transcription factors in the heart, which are not only implicated in organ development, but also in energy homeostasis regulation. The team is also investigating metabolism of the heart and its communications with other core metabolic tissues/organs (e.g., adipose tissue and liver). Using genetically engineered mice as principal models, the research program integrates physiology with molecular and systems biology approaches to address fundamental questions about cardiac metabolism in heart function and diseases.

Doug Manuel, MD, MSc, FRCPC 

Senior Scientist, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Professor, Departments of Family Medicine and Epidemiology & Community Medicine, University of Ottawa
Core Senior Scientist, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences

Dr. Doug Manuel creates predictive algorithms and planning tools using large linked administrative and clinical health data. He is a physician with specialization in Public Health and Preventive Medicine. He has published over 250 research papers, including studies in leading medical journals. His team's predictive algorithms have been used worldwide by over 1 million people in the community and clinical setting, including at projectbiglife.ca. For over 25 years, he has been a primary care doctor in rural, remote and underserved Canadian communities.

Wojtek Michalowski, PhD 

Vice-Dean (Research)
Telfer School of Management 
University of Ottawa

Dr. Wojtek Michalowski is a Professor of Health Informatics at the Telfer School of Management. He is a founding member of the MET Research Laboratory at the University of Ottawa, and Adjunct Research Professor at the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University. During the 1997/98 academic year, he was the Senior Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. In 2013, the President of the Republic of Poland granted Dr. Michalowski the state title of Professor in recognition of his outstanding research accomplishments. This honour, the highest distinction given to researchers in Poland, comes at the recommendation of the Polish Academy of Sciences. 

Dr. Michalowski is currently the Principal Investigator of Mobile Emergency Triage (MET), a NSERC-funded research program. The research aims at making clinical practice guidelines applicable for patients with multiple diseases and developing clinical decision support systems for cross-platform applications.

UOHI Trainee Committee Representatives

Aws Almufleh, MD MPH FRCPC (Internal Medicine)

Cardiology Fellow
University of Ottawa Heart Institute

Dr. Aws Almufleh is a final year Cardiology Fellow at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI). He completed a Master's degree in public health and epidemiology (MPH) at the University of Miami before embarking on clinical residency and fellowship training.  Besides heart failure and transplantation research, Aws has a keen interest in the interaction of artificial intelligence and heart failure patients' outcomes. He truly believes in the potential and inevitable role of AI in facilitating patients care and optimizing health outcomes.

Natasha Trzaskalski MSc · PhD student

Faculty of Medicine, Biochemistry
University of Ottawa Heart Institute

Natasha Trzaskalski is entering the second year of her PhD at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) in Dr. Erin Mulvihill's lab. Natasha's project focuses on unravelling the degradome of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4), a serine protease with cardiovascular implications in patients with type 2 diabetes, using a novel negative enrichment strategy. Her project has the potential to lead to therapies to treat diabetes induced cardiovascular disease starting with a big data approach.