Harry Klimis
PHRI Research Fellow Harry Klimis has received the 2022 Michael G. DeGroote Fellowship Award in Clinical Research. Funded through the generosity of Michael G. DeGroote – a philanthropist from Hamilton who passed away in September 2022 – the award will provide support of $40,000 for one year.
Klimis is being recognized for his work in prevention of cardiovascular disease including people with cancer and cancer survivors at high-risk of CVD, under the mentorship of PHRI Executive Director and Senior Scientist, Salim Yusuf, and PHRI Scientist Darryl Leong – the latter in the cardio-oncology and cancer survivorship program.
About his motivation for his research, Klimis says:
While we have made tremendous advances in cardiovascular research over the last decade, it baffles me that there is still a large gap in the care we deliver to our patients. Many patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease are eventually succumbing to the disease, partly because we are not accurately identifying who these high-risk patients are, and thus many patients are not receiving potentially life-saving therapies. I’m passionate about closing this gap in care.
I hope that my research will ultimately improve cardiovascular care for cancer survivors by improving cardiovascular risk stratification in these patients and developing innovative management strategies that are translated into clinical practice.
He works with Leong and team on the PHRI studies, RADICAL PC and SCHOLAR-2, and with Yusuf and team on the PURE study. An Australian cardiologist, Klimis also has research interests in digital health interventions and echocardiography.
Klimis notes that he believes that “Michael DeGroote’s generous support to McMaster University, including this fellowship, has enabled and will continue to enable many researchers like myself to make impactful advances in health sciences research that translates into improved patient outcomes.”
