In April of this year, the University of Ottawa Heart Institute expanded its ranks with a new surgeon who brings broad interests in new concepts and technologies that have the potential to improve patient outcomes. Crossing the Atlantic from the Clinique Saint-Luc Bouge in Namur, Belgium, David
Cardiovascular medicine has become so successful at rescuing people from major challenges, such as heart attack and stroke, that it must now confront an entirely new difficulty: helping the survivors of these health crises. In many cases, the hearts of these patients have been significantly weakened
Patients admitted to the hospital for heart failure receive a barrage of tests and treatments to assess and stabilize their conditions. But when they are discharged home, much of the responsibility for the patients’ future health rests in their own hands. If they don’t take their medications as
Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes the efforts of many to maintain the health and quality of life of a person with heart failure. Cardiovascular specialists are essential, but no less so are the family doctors and other health care providers who deliver ongoing care; friends and
Shortness of breath, swelling ankles, fatigue—they can easily be passed off as part of getting older. But for more than 600,000 Canadians, these are signs of something much more serious. They are among the frustratingly non-specific symptoms of heart failure, the only form of heart disease that is