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Knowledge Translation and Health Systems Research

High-impact research in knowledge translation (KT) and health systems has emerged from PHRI, such as the WHO Hearts Implementation Package adopting the non-physician health worker training curriculum from our HOPE-4 and ISLAND studies. We’ve also improved medication/cardiac rehab adherence post-MI, and optimized the use of angiography in our region.

PHRI is developing interventions to improve the use of low-cost, effective treatments globally, working with 30 communities and six academic institutions in Colombia, Malaysia, the UK and Canada.

We collaborate with Knowledge Translation Canada, and with the Centre for Evidence Based Implementation (CEBI) in Hamilton.

Salim Yusuf

Executive Director; Senior Scientist

Salim Yusuf
Executive Director; Senior Scientist

Salim Yusuf is an internationally renowned cardiologist and epidemiologist, whose work over 40 years has substantially influenced prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Born in India, medically qualified at St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore in 1976, he received a Rhodes Scholarship and obtained a DPhil from Oxford, during which he (along with Richard Peto, Rory Collins and Peter Sleight) initiated the concepts of large, simple trials, and meta-analysis. He proposed the concept of combination drug treatment for prevention of CVD to achieve large reductions in CVD with a single pill (now called the polypill concept), but more importantly has been evaluating the concept through large randomized trials.

He leads several global studies involving more than 60 countries in every inhabited continent of the world aimed at enhancing knowledge about the biological, behavioural and societal causes, consequences, and approaches to the control of heart diseases, and strokes through large multi-country programs such as INTERHEART, INTERSTROKE, and PURE.

He holds a Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario Research Chair and has received (among others) the Lifetime Research Achievement award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society; the Paul Wood Silver Medal of the British Cardiac Society; the European Society of Cardiology gold medal, the clinical Research Prize of the American Heart Association and the International Award and the Braunwald Lecture of the American College of Cardiology. He has been inducted into the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame; been appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada, and received the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award in 2014. He has received four honorary doctorates, and is among the top 20 most cited health researchers in history.

Salim Yusuf has published more than 1,000 articles in refereed journals, rising to the second most cited researcher in the world for 2011. He has mentored more than 120 scientists, several of whom are in leadership positions across the globe. He has been President of the World Heart Federation (2015-2016), where he initiated several programs (the Emerging Leaders program, road maps for CVD control and a course for training primary care practitioners in CVD prevention) aimed at halving the CVD burden globally within a generation. The World Heart Federation has recognized his contributions by naming the program the Salim Yusuf Emerging Leaders Programme.

He is a Distinguished University Professor of Medicine, and Executive Director of the Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University and Chief Scientist, Hamilton Health Sciences.

Jeff Healey

Senior Scientist

Jeff Healey
Senior Scientist

Jeff Healey is a Senior Scientist in the Arrhythmia and Heart Failure research program at PHRI, an Associate Professor, Medicine, McMaster University, and Director of Arrhythmia Services at Hamilton  Health Sciences. His research involves conducting RCTs and large registries in the fields of atrial fibrillation and cardiac devices. He was the lead author of the SIMPLE trial, published in the Lancet in 2015, which demonstrated that implantable defibrillators could be safely inserted without performing intra-operative defibrillation testing.

He was the lead author of the ASSERT trial, published in New England Journal of Medicine in 2012, demonstrating the increased stroke risk associated with sub-clinical atrial fibrillation detected by pacemakers. Thomson-Reuters recognized ASSERT as the 38th most-cited scientific publication in 2012 (#16 in Medicine).

He was principal investigator and chair of the Canadian Stroke Prevention Intervention Network (CSPIN), a ten-year network grant funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and Industry. He is the past co-chair of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society’s Atrial Fibrillation Guidelines Committee. Jeff has published more than 185 manuscripts.

JD Schwalm

Scientist

JD Schwalm
Scientist

JD Schwalm is a Principal Investigator in the Knowledge Translation and Health Systems research program at PHRI, an Associate Professor, Department of Medicine (cardiology) at McMaster University, and an interventional cardiologist at Hamilton Health Sciences. He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers and book chapters.

He completed medical school, internal medicine residency, and cardiology fellowship training at McMaster University, Ontario, followed by an interventional cardiology fellowship at McMaster and further training in that field at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, with certification in internal medicine and cardiology.

Michael McGillion

Scientist

Michael McGillion
Scientist

Michael McGillion is Associate Professor, and Assistant Dean, Research, at the School of Nursing, McMaster University. He is the Heart and Stroke Foundation/Michael G. DeGroote Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Nursing Research, and the International Visiting Professor of Digital Health, at Coventry University in the UK.

He is an internationally-recognized researcher in the area of persistent forms of cardiac pain such as refractory angina and unrelieved chest pain following successful revascularization procedures. He was Chair of the Joint Canadian Cardiovascular Society – Canadian Pain Society guidelines for the management of refractory angina, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). He is Principal Investigator of the largest CIHR-funded, international prospective cohort study to examine social and psychological predictors of chronic post-surgical pain following cardiac surgery. His research focuses on remote automated monitoring and virtual recovery support for people recovering from cardiac and vascular surgery, decision support for people living with RFA, and global-scale, web-based dissemination of new evidence on persistent forms of cardiac pain.

Mike has been recognized for his research and advocacy by receiving the Canadian Pain Society Early Career Award and the McMaster University Arch Award for outstanding contributions to society; and was the first University Scholar (2019) from the McMaster School of Nursing.

Harriette Van Spall

Scientist

Harriette Van Spall
Scientist

Harriette Van Spall is a Scientist for the Arrhythmia and Heart Failure research program and the Knowledge Translation and Health Systems program at PHRI, an Associate Professor, Department of Medicine (cardiology) at McMaster University. Her research, supported by CIHR and the Ministry of Health, is in quality of care and outcomes, knowledge translation, and health systems improvement pertaining to heart failure. She has won several research awards, and her work has been published in high-impact medical journals, including JAMA, Lancet, Circulation, and Annals of Internal Medicine.

She earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. She completed postgraduate training in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Echocardiography at the University of Toronto.

Madhu Natarajan

Investigator

Madhu Natarajan
Investigator

Madhu Natarajan is an interventional cardiologist and Principal Investigator for the Coronary Interventional Health Delivery and Knowledge Translational and Implementation programs at PHRI. He is a Professor at McMaster University, Director of Catheterization Laboratories at Hamilton Health Sciences, and Site Director for Cardiology at Hamilton General Hospital.

He has published more than 85 articles, is Chair of the STEMI-EMS Committee, Cardiac Care Network of Ontario, member of the Royal College Cardiology National Examination Board, and program lead for Regional STEMI network in LHIN-4 Ontario.

Tej Sheth

Scientist

Tej Sheth
Scientist

Tej Sheth is a Scientist with the Perioperative and Surgery research program at PHRI, as well as a Principal Investigator in atherosclerosis imaging, an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University, and a interventional cardiologist at Hamilton Health Sciences. His research interests include invasive and non-invasive coronary imaging modalities, including coronary angiography, optical coherence tomography, and CT coronary angiography. He is Director of the CT Angiographic Core Lab for the COMPASS CABG study and the COMPLETE trial at PHRI.

Jackie Bosch

Scientist

Jackie Bosch
Scientist

Jackie Bosch started working with Salim Yusuf in 1993, before PHRI was formally created, as she was completing her Masters in Clinical Epidemiology, with the intent to learn how to do clinical trials so she could run trials in post-stroke rehabilitation. Most recently, she has been a co-investigator on large trials in primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, as well as understanding the causes of functional decline as well as developing simple, internationally applicable interventions to improve post-stroke disability.

She is Assistant Dean of the Occupational Therapy program, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, McMaster University, and has received awards such as the (McMaster) President’s Award for Outstanding Service, and the PHRI Award for Outstanding Contributions to Global Collaborations. She has more than 65 peer-reviewed publications.

Ted Scott

Associate Collaborator

Ted Scott
Associate Collaborator

Ted Scott is Chief Innovation Officer, and Acting Vice-President, Research, Hamilton Health Sciences. He is Chair of the Synapse Life Sciences Consortium in Hamilton, and was previously Chief Innovation Officer and Dean of Applied Research at Mohawk College, where he studied Radiography and Sonography.

He is an expert digital health strategist and has a wealth of experience in industry relations and procurement, as well as innovation policy. He returned to HHS where he started his career as a sonographer after working at The Hospital for Sick Children and Huntsville District Memorial Hospital. Ted is a lifelong learner who earned his Masters of Applied Science in Medical Ultrasound and his PhD in Diagnostic Imaging from Charles Sturt University of Australia.

Tim O’Shea

Associate Investigator

Tim O’Shea
Associate Investigator

Tim O’Shea is an Associate Professor, Department of Medicine (divisions of general internal medicine and infectious diseases), McMaster University. He has travelled and worked extensively in East Africa in both general internal medicine and infectious diseases. His academic interests include medical education and the care of marginalized populations such as people affected by poverty, homelessness and addiction.

He has been involved in implementing a Global Health curriculum for the McMaster University Internal Medicine Residency Program. Tim completed his medical degree at McMaster University and a Masters of Public Health at Harvard University. He trained in internal medicine, infectious diseases and medical microbiology at McMaster, and is Royal College certified in each of these disciplines.

Jeremy Petch

Associate Investigator

Jeremy Petch
Associate Investigator

Jeremy Petch is Director, Digital Health Innovation, Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS), where his team employs machine learning to data streaming from continuous remote monitoring devices to develop improved early-warning systems for patients recovering from surgery. They are also developing a range of patient and clinician-facing applications in the areas of virtual care and improving clinical workflow.

He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and has a PhD in Philosophy (Health Policy Ethics) from York University.

Tara McCready

Program Director

Tara McCready
Program Director

Tara McCready, PhD, oversees a variety of collaborative programs at PHRI, and serves as Project Manager for PHRI research studies and registries.

She was recruited to PHRI as a Program Director for the Canadian Network and Centre for Trials Internationally (CANNeCTIN), a national network funded by the CIHR/CFI Clinical Research Initiative program to improve the prevention and treatment of cardiac and vascular diseases and diabetes.

Previously the Executive Director of the Canadian Maternal, Infant, Child and Youth Research Network, Tara holds a PhD in Biochemistry and a MBA in Technology Commercialization from the University of Alberta.

Jennifer Cunningham

Project Manager

Jennifer Cunningham
Project Manager

Jennifer Cunningham has more than 20 years’ experience working in research at PHRI. Starting with a few months assisting in research accounting in the then CCC Project Office in 1998, she began her PHRI career with study teams in 2000. Since then, Jennifer has had many roles at PHRI, from data management to her current role in project management; and has worked on and managed multiple studies, from large international cardiovascular, national gastrointestinal, to policy changes and vulnerable/marginalized people studies within our own local community.

ongoing

HAMSMaRT

KT & Health Systems

HAMSMart is a local registry in low-resource settings in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada collecting basic information...

ongoing

OSCAIL

KT & Health Systems

The OSCAIL study is a centrally guided, locally championed pilot study to determine the feasibility...

ongoing

VICTORY-HF

KT & Health Systems

Phone: 905-296-6460 | Email: victory-hf@phri.ca We are testing the effect of a comprehensive virtual heart...

completed

CarDIA

KT & Health Systems

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death world-wide. The gold-standard test used...

completed

HOPE-4

KT & Health Systems

The objective of the HOPE-4 study was to develop, implement, and evaluate an evidence-based, contextually-appropriate...

completed

ISLAND-ACS

KT & Health Systems

For patients who have had a myocardial infarction (MI) and coronary artery disease, guidelines recommend...

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