To new cardiac anesthesiology residents, Dr. Jean-Yves Dupuis explains that it may be hard for them to predict the twists and turns their careers might take. “I tell them that the day I finished my internship back in 1979, I swore I would never go back to a university hospital—I wanted to travel the...
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In March, Dr. Rob Beanlands was appointed Chief of Cardiology at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He brings extensive career experience in cardiovascular imaging and a passion for patient-centred care and education to his new position. Dr. Beanlands takes over from Dr. Terrence Ruddy, Chief...
Whether it’s watching television, going for a long drive or spending hours in front of a computer, sitting for long periods of time increases your risk for a variety of health problems, even if you get regular exercise. While regular exercise is key to preventing heart disease, obesity and diabetes...
But living on a salt-restricted diet can be a challenge. “It’s really hard to know how much sodium is in food because you don’t see it,” explained Kathleen Turner, a registered dietitian with the Division of Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation at the Ottawa Heart Institute. “It just disappears...
Lana Gillard was used to going to the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Her mother was a long-time patient there, suffering from chronic heart failure after many years of treatment and several open-heart surgeries. Gillard accompanied her to appointments and knew her mother was in excellent...
It was Anne McAllister, a 56-year-old lawyer living in Ottawa who first sparked Dr. David Birnie’s interest in a rare but potentially deadly heart condition just over a decade ago. McAllister was experiencing frequent spells of arrhythmia. Her heart rate changed from rapid to slow without any...
Legalized marijuana is now a reality in Canada. This opening up of legal access will have a variety of health implications. In addition, marijuana is increasingly prescribed for much of what ails us, from the pain and inflammation of osteoarthritis to a host of other conditions, many of which affect...
A renowned cardiac surgeon, a champion of innovation, and an experienced and respected administrator, Dr. Thierry Mesana is also a passionate advocate for the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. On September 11, the Heart Institute announced his appointment as its third President and CEO, to...
With populations aging in much of the world, the decline of mental capacity in later years is of increasing concern. There has been hope in the medical community that effectively treating high blood pressure and atherosclerosis could slow or delay this decline. In a study of people over the age of...
It’s 2062. The world is a futuristic utopia of push-button conveniences made possible by technology. Even visiting the doctor happens virtually via videophone. Such was the premise of the popular American animated sitcom, The Jetsons, which first hit airwaves in 1962. But, as Cardiac Telehealth...
The good news is that their hearts are in the right place. Women in Canada see themselves as their families’ “heart keepers,” playing a significant role in maintaining everyone’s heart health, whether it’s the food they serve, the physical activity they encourage, or the non-smoking households they...
Shoehorned into a small room, the first positron emission tomography (PET) scanner at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute made possible a dedicated PET imaging service for heart patients one day a week. That was in 1995, and cardiologist Rob Beanlands, MD, physicist Rob deKemp, PhD, and nuclear...
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...
More than half a million Canadians are living with heart failure and another 50,000 join their ranks each year. The standard treatment for heart failure has not changed for quite some time. Now, a new drug—so new that it’s identified only as LCZ696—is generating interest among cardiologists and...
Not all treatments work in all patients, but often it’s not possible to know ahead of time who will benefit. The Ottawa Heart Institute recently became the first centre in Canada to use a new radioactive tracer clinically to better define the prognosis of a patient in heart failure. The tracer...
The University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) is leading Canada's first dedicated walking rehabilitation program for people with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), a painful and debilitating “hardening” of the arteries outside of the heart, most commonly in the legs. The first-of-its-kind...
In less than a decade, the search for common genetic variations that alter people’s risk of disease has changed the way we think about genetic risk. In the world of cardiovascular medicine, 36 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)—the tiny genetic changes that help to differentiate one individual’s...
A recent conference in Washington, D.C., on cardiovascular research technologies hailed the success of life-saving strategies for emergency heart attack patients who suffer ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The Beat spoke about recent developments in these strategies with Dr. Michel Le May...
All exercise is good, and some is better than none, but the health benefits of Nordic walking are superior, study finds. Cardiovascular rehab programs and exercise in general is known to improve the health of people with heart disease. However, less is known about whether such improvements are...
Occupational therapy is proving to be one of the most important ways to avoid readmission to hospital. This was the finding of a study recently published in the journal Medical Care Research and Review which found readmission rates for heart patients were lower in hospitals that invested more in...