Research Fellows

Alexander Benz

Research Fellow

Alexander Benz joined the Arrhythmia Research group at PHRI, supervised by Stuart Connolly, as a research fellow in January 2019, and is enrolled in the Health Research Methodology program at McMaster University. His primary research interest is clinical electrophysiology, with a particular focus on atrial fibrillation. Other areas of interest include oral anticoagulation in various settings, inflammation, cardiac implantable electronic devices and interventions such as catheter ablation.

He is actively involved in the conduct of large international clinical trials coordinated at PHRI. Alexander is the Principal Investigator of a randomized clinical trial testing a short-course treatment with colchicine in the setting of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation that started enrollment in January 2020.

Alexander obtained his medical degree from Goethe University in Frankfurt (Germany) in 2015. He is pursuing a career in Cardiology.

Danielle de Sa Boasquevisque

Research Fellow

Danielle de Sa Boasquevisque is a Research Fellow at PHRI, supervised by Ashkan Shoamanesh, and is pursuing a Masters in Health Research Methodology at McMaster University. At PHRI, she is a co-Investigator in the ENRICH-AF trial and Project Officer for the CATIS-ICAD trial.

She obtained her MD from Federal University of Espirito Santo in Brazil and has completed internal medicine and neurology training in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 2018, she completed her MSc in Neuroscience at Albert Einstein Institute/Sao Paulo, Brazil where she studied safety of transcranial direct current stimulation in patients after ischemic stroke. She also pursued a two-year clinical Stroke fellowship at McMaster University from 2018 to 2020.

Danielle has research interests in vascular neurology including acute stroke, neuro-rehabilitation, intracranial atherosclerotic disease and intracerebral hemorrhage. She is currently implementing an ICH cohort study and performing systematic review regarding ICH related outcomes.

Isabelle Johansson

Research Fellow

Isabelle Johansson is a Research Fellow at PHRI, supervised by Salim Yusuf, and McMaster University where she is pursuing a Masters in Health Research Methodology, clinical epidemiology. Her main research interests are in heart failure, diabetes, global health, and cardiovascular disease prevention. At PHRI, she is an Investigator in the G-CHF-study and the PURE study. Isabelle was in the 2019 cohort of the World Heart Federation Salim Yusuf Emerging Leaders Programme, focusing on reducing the burden of heart failure globally.

She obtained her M.D. from the Karolinska Institutet Medical University, Stockholm, Sweden in 2014 and has completed two out five years of clinical training in a residency in family medicine. She completed her Ph.D. in medical sciences at the Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medicine in 2017 where she studied epidemiological aspects of heart failure in combination with diabetes. Isabelle was part of the European Society of Cardiology task force writing the guidelines for the management of diabetes and cardiovascular disease presented in September 2019.

Ryo Naito

Research Fellow

After working as a cardiologist for more than 10 years in Japan, Ryo Naito is now a Research Fellow at PHRI, joining the PURE study team. His research interests include preventive cardiology, heart failure, and ischemic heart disease.

Sukrit Narula

Research Fellow

Sukrit Narula is currently pursuing his MD at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and his PhD in Health Research Methods program at McMaster University. He completed his undergraduate studies at Stanford University. His research involves using biobanks collected as a part of randomized trials and large epidemiologic studies to elucidate the pathophysiology underlying cardiovascular disease.

He is currently doing work on PURE Biomarker, a substudy of the PURE study to understand the prognostic importance of genetics and new serum biomarkers in a global context. Sukrit also has research interests in cardiovascular imaging, vascular disease, evidence-based medicine, and meta-research. He is supervised by Guillaume Pare and Salim Yusuf.

Reema Shah

Research Fellow

Reema Shah completed her MD and internal medicine residency at the University of Toronto, and her endocrinology and metabolism residency at McMaster University. After residency, she completed the Clinician Investigator Program at McMaster University and Master of Public Health degree at Harvard University. Reema is interested in clinical research in the area of diabetes and its complications. She is being supervised by Dr. Hertzel Gerstein.

Jeremy Petch

Associate Fellow

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.