Dr. Jodi Edwards is the Director of the Brain and Heart Nexus Research Program at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI), Associate Professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa, Director of the UOHI Population Outcomes Research Unit and Scientific Director of the UOHI Data Science Centre. Dr. Edwards’ expertise is in cardiovascular epidemiology and her research focuses on risk assessment and predictive modeling for the heart-brain interface, clinical prediction tools and neuromodulation interventions for recovery. Dr. Edwards receives funding from CIHR, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Brain Canada and NSERC and is one of the 10 named PIs on the Brain-Heart Interconnectome CFREF program ($107M over 7 years) and is also the lead PI on the STROKECOG CIHR Clinical Trials Training Platform for innovative clinical trial training initiatives in stroke and cognition ($3M over 3 years). Since 2020, she has been awarded the Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF) National New Investigator in Women’s Heart and Brain Health, UOHI Investigator of the Year, Faculty of Medicine Early Career Researcher of the Year and Canadian Women’s Heart, Brain and Vascular Health Investigator Award. Dr. Edwards publishes extensively in leading clinical journals and has received national media attention for her work. She is Co-PI of the Canadian Platform for Trials in Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, and Co-Chaired the International Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Alliance Roundtable on Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation and is a member of the Health Systems and Policy Working Group for the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance.
Background
Dr. Edwards completed her doctoral training at the University of British Columbia in 2014, where she was awarded the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences and Mental Health Brain Star Award for her doctoral work involving transcranial magnetic stimulation in patients with a recent cardiovascular event. She went on to complete a Post-Doctoral Fellowship with Dr. Sandra Black at Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto, prior to joining the UOHI in December 2017. Throughout her training, Dr. Edwards held continuous salary funding from national agencies including CIHR and HSF.
Dr. Edwards held consecutive terms, during her Post-Doctoral Fellowship, as Chair of the National Training Associations for both the Canadian Stroke Network and the Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery. Currently, she is an active member of the Expert Advisory Group for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Women’s Heart Health Alliance and, in 2019, Dr. Edwards Co-Chaired the 7th Annual Ottawa Heart Conference on Big Data in Cardiovascular Disease. She is currently an active reviewer for CIHR for both the Project Grant and Sex and Gender Chair Committees and also reviews for numerous journals including Clinical Cardiology, the Journal of Human Hypertension, the International Journal of Stroke, BMC Neurology, the Journal of American Geriatrics, Neurobiology of Aging, and Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy.
Dr. Edwards has published extensively in leading clinical journals including the Journal of the American Heart Association, Stroke, Neurology, and Alzheimer’s and Dementia and her work has received national media attention. Dr. Edwards presently holds a CIHR Project Grant, a Heart and Stroke Foundation New Investigator Award and Seed Catalyst Grant supported through the Improving Heart and Brain Health for Women in Canada initiative, the Atrial Fibrillation Research Award from the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, and previously held Catalyst Grants from the Canadian Stroke Trials for Optimized Results (CaSTOR) and the Canadian Stroke Prevention Intervention Network (C-Spin). Most recently, Dr. Edwards received the 2020 Canadian Women’s Heart, Brain and Vascular Health Investigator Award in recognition of her important research contributions to this field.
Research and clinical interests
Dr. Edwards’ research program utilizes data from population-based databases, international prospective cohorts and new health technologies to identify novel risk markers and evaluate the independent and cumulative contributions of unexplored cardiac risk factors on clinical outcomes in individuals at high risk of stroke, atrial fibrillation, and cognitive decline.
The goal of Dr. Edwards’ research is to develop predictive tools to identify those at the highest risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes and extend the window for preventive management in this population.
Publications
See current publications list at PubMed.
Selected publications:
- Edwards JD, Healey J, Fang J, Yip K, Gladstone DJ. Atrial cardiopathy in the absence of atrial fibrillation increases risk of ischemic stroke, incident AF, and mortality and improves stroke risk prediction. J Am Heart Assoc. (accepted online April 9, 2020).
- Norris CM, Yip CYY, Nerenberg KA, Clavel MA, Pacheco C, Foulds HJA, Hardy M, Gonsalves CA, Jaffer S, Parry M, Colella TJF, Dhukai A, Grewal J, Price JAD, Levinsson ALE, Hart D, Harvey PJ, Van Spall HGC, Sarfi H, Sedlak TL, Ahmed SB, Baer C, Coutinho T, Edwards JD, Green CR, Kirkham AA, Srivaratharajah K, Dumanski S, Keeping-Burke L, Lappa N, Reid RD, Robert H, Smith G, Martin-Rhee M, Mulvagh SL. State of the Science in Women's Cardiovascular Disease: A Canadian Perspective on the Influence of Sex and Gender. J Am Heart Assoc. 2020, Feb 18;9(4):e015634.
- Edwards JD, Kapral MK, Lindsay MP, Fang J, Swartz RH. Increased Long-Term Risk of Mortality and Morbidity in Young Clinically Stable Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack Patients. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2019, Jan 8;8(1):e010370
- Edwards JD, Kapoor A, Linkewich B, Swartz R. Return to work after young stroke: A systematic review.. International Journal of Stroke. 2018, Apr;13(3):243-256.
- Edwards JD, Ramirez J, Callahan BL, Berezuk C, Lanctot K, Swardfager W, Strother S, Kiss A, Nestor S, Black SE. Antihypertensive treatment is associated with imaging markers of neurodegeneration and cognition: A propensity-weighted cohort analysis. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 2017, 59(3):1113-1122.
- Edwards JD, Kapral MK, Fan, J. Swartz, R. High long-term morbidity and mortality in stable patients without early complications after stroke or transient ischemic attack. CMAJ.2017, Jul 24;189(29):E954-E961.
- Edwards JD. The importance of identifying early changes in cardiac structure and function for the prevention of cognitive impairment and dementia. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 2017, 58(1):285-288.
- Edwards JD, Koehoorn M, Boyd LA, Sobolev B, Levy AR.. Comparing algorithms for the identification of transient ischemic attack cases in physician billing administrative data: A population-based diagnostic accuracy study. Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences. 2017, Jul;44(4):397-403.
- Edwards JD, Kapral MK, Fan, J, Saposnik G, Gladstone, DJ. Underutilization of Ambulatory ECG Monitoring After Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack. Missed Opportunities for Atrial Fibrillation Detection. Stroke. 2016, 47(8):1982-9.
- Edwards JD, Jacova C, Sephery A, Pratt B, & Benavente OR.. A Quantitative Systematic Review of Domain-Specific Cognitive Impairment in Lacunar Stroke. Neurology. 2013, Jan 15;80(3):315-22.
- Edwards JD, Meehan SK, Levy AR, Teal PA, Linsdell MA, Boyd LA. Changes in intracortical excitability after transient ischemic attack are associated with ABCD2 score. Stroke. 2011, 42(3):728-33.
- Edwards JD, Koehoorn M, Boyd LA, Levy AR. Is Health-Related Quality of Life Improving after Stroke? A Comparison of Health Utilities Indices among Canadians with Stroke. Stroke. 2010, May;41(5):996-1000.