Researchers

John Eikelboom

Senior Scientist

John Eikelboom is Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, McMaster University, and a haematologist in the Thrombosis Service, Hamilton General Hospital. He originally trained in Internal Medicine and Haematology in Perth, Australia and subsequently moved to Hamilton to take up a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine.

He has co-authored more than 350 articles in peer-reviewed journals. His current research, supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, focuses on the efficacy and safety of antithrombotic therapies, outcomes after blood transfusion and bleeding, and the mechanisms of variable response to antiplatelet drugs.

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.

Eva Lonn

Senior Scientist

Eva Lonn is a Principal Investigator for the Atherosclerosis Imaging and Cardiovascular Prevention programs at PHRI, and  a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at McMaster University.

She has led several large international trials and was a member of the International Steering Committee of additional landmark cardiovascular prevention trials. She directed the Vascular Research Ultrasound Laboratory at PHRI for more than 20 years. She served for many years on the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Council and Executive Committee. She has received research grants from the Medical Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. She published over 220 peer reviewed articles, and 8 book chapters.

After obtaining her medical degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Eva Lonn completed clinical training in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Advanced Imaging at the University of Toronto and research fellowships at the University of Toronto and at McMaster University, where she obtained also a Master of Science degree in Health Research Methodology.

David Conen

Scientist

David Conen is a Scientist at PHRI, which he joined in 2016, and an Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, McMaster University. A trained internist and cardiologist from Basel, Switzerland, he obtained a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University.

His research activities involves the conduct of large epidemiological cohort studies to study risk factors for the occurrence of atrial fibrillation and its consequences, and research into therapies to prevent and treat perioperative atrial fibrillation. David is the Co-Principal Investigator of a large national cohort study to assess the relationship between atrial fibrillation and cognitive decline in Switzerland (Swiss-AF). He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed manuscripts in leading scientific journals as well as several reviews and editorials.

Sanjit Jolly

Scientist

Sanjit Jolly is an interventional cardiologist at Hamilton Health Sciences and associate professor at McMaster University. He has formal training in clinical trials with a M.Sc. in Health Research Methodology from McMaster. He was the principal investigator of the RIVAL trial, a randomized trial of 7021 patients comparing radial and femoral access for coronary intervention. He is also the principal investigator trial of the ongoing TOTAL trial, an international randomized trial (N=10,700) of thrombectomy during primary PCI.

Andre Lamy

Scientist

Andre Lamy is a cardiac surgeon practicing at the Hamilton Health Sciences since 1996, and Professor in the Department of Surgery, McMaster University. He led the Canadian Institute of Health Research funded CORONARY trial, which evaluated off-pump CABG surgery versus on-pump CABG surgery in 4752 patients. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2012 and 2013.

Emilie Belley-Côté

Investigator

Emilie Belley-Côté is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University; she practices critical care cardiology in the cardiovascular intensive care unit and coronary care unit at the Hamilton General Hospital. Her research interests include perioperative cardiac surgery care, knowledge synthesis and guideline development. At this stage in her career, she has more than 120 publications, including articles in NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, as well as first-tier critical care journals.

She obtained her MD from Université de Sherbrooke in 2006. After internal medicine and cardiology training, as well as an MSc in Clinical Sciences, she completed a critical care fellowship at McMaster. In 2019, she completed a PhD in Health Research Methodology at McMaster University.

Vinai Bhagarith

Investigator

Vinai Bhagirath is a hematologist working clinically in benign hematology and thrombosis at the Hamilton General Hospital. He holds a Master’s degree in Medical Sciences, for which he studied molecular mediators of inflammation in sepsis, after which he trained as a clinical research fellow under the mentorship of John Eikelboom, a Senior Scientist at PHRI.

His current research interests include optimal measurement and dosing of direct oral anticoagulants, innovative digital platforms to improve trial efficiency, and predictors of bleeding.

Michael Chong

Investigator; Asst Director CRLB-GMEL

Michael Chong is a PHRI Investigator and the Assistant Director of the Clinical Research Laboratory and Biobank (CRLB) – Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory (GMEL). He is also a Research Associate at McMaster University in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine. To date, he has published approximately 40 articles related to stroke and cardiovascular disease genetics, mitochondrial genomics, biomarkers, and bioinformatics.

He completed his MSc in Medical Sciences at McMaster University (2012-2014) under the supervision of Guillaume Paré, where he studied the role of rare genetic variants as risk factors for early-onset stroke. From 2015-2017, he worked as a bioinformatician at GMEL and played key roles in the genetic analyses of several PHRI studies including INTERSTROKE and ORIGIN. From 2018-2021, he completed his PhD in Biochemistry at McMaster university, where he integrated genetics and biomarker data to uncover novel drug targets for stroke.

Marc-André d’Entremont

Research Fellow

Marc-André d’Entremont is a Research Fellow at PHRI, supervised by Sanjit Jolly, and a Ph.D. candidate in the Health Research Methodology program at McMaster University under the supervision of Sanjit Jolly, Émilie Belley-Côté and Richard Whitlock.

A Clinical Scholar in the Division of Cardiology at McMaster, he has been awarded a CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Award. His research interests include coronary artery disease therapeutics, intravascular imaging, and clinical trial methodology.

He obtained his M.D. at the Université de Sherbrooke in 2015 and completed his internal medicine and cardiology residency at the same institution. During his residency, he completed a Master of Public Health at Harvard University in 2021.

Graham McClure

Research Fellow

Graham McClure is a PHRI Research Fellow supervised by PHRI Investigator Emilie Belley-Cote and PHRI Scientist Richard Whitlock. He is a PhD student in the Health Research Methodology program at McMaster University, and a member of the Clinician Investigator Program at McMaster, and a member of the Halton Healthcare Division of Vascular Surgery.

His current research interests include medical optimization in peripheral vascular disease, antithrombotic therapy following peripheral revascularization, intravascular imaging strategies, and social determinants of health in vascular surgery. He completed his vascular surgery residency at McMaster University.

Lonnie Pyne

Research Fellow

Lonnie Pyne is a Research Fellow at PHRI, supervised by Dr. Michael Walsh, and a MSc student in the Health Research Methodology program at McMaster. Lonnie is a Clinical Scholar in the Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology at McMaster University. Lonnie obtained his medical degree from Western University. He completed his internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship at McMaster University.

His current research interests include chronic kidney disease, surrogate outcomes in nephrology, cardiovascular outcomes in kidney disease, and vasculitis.

Deborah Siegal

Associate Scientist

Deborah Siegal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine within the Division of Hematology at the University of Ottawa. Her primary research interests include improving patient outcomes after anticoagulant-related bleeding; management of anticoagulants in patients who have acute bleeding complications or require urgent surgery; understanding the factors that influence patient and physician decision-making after anticoagulant-related bleeding; and reducing red blood cell transfusion by minimizing iatrogenic blood loss for laboratory testing.

With expertise in the design and conduct of pragmatic cluster randomized trials, individual patient randomized trials, mixed-methods studies, observational studies and meta-analyses, Deborah Siegal has received peer-reviewed grant support as principal investigator from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the American Society of Hematology, CanVECTOR/Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Ontario AFP Innovation Fund, and Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation. She has published 70 peer-reviewed articles including several in high-impact journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Blood, and Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Ryo Naito

Associate Investigator

After working as a cardiologist for more than 10 years in Japan, Ryo Naito became a PHRI Research Fellow in 2018, joining the PURE study team. His research interests include preventive cardiology, heart failure, and ischemic heart disease. He is now an Associate Investigator at PHRI.

Sukrit Narula

Associate 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.

Yannick Le Manach

YANNICK LE MANACH was an Investigator in the Perioperative and Surgery research program at PHRI, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, at McMaster University. He passed in July 2020.

His main clinical research interests included the prediction of postoperative complications after surgery, and perioperative hemodynamic management care and strategies to improve outcomes after surgery. With an MD in anesthesia and critical care from Paris VI University, a Masters of Cardiac Physiology from Paris VII University, and a PhD in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from Paris V University in France, he published more than 120 peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Klas Malmberg

KLAS MALMBERG, cardiologist renowned for his work in academia as well as the pharmaceutical industry, did a two-year sabbatical at PHRI (1997-1999) where he worked closely with Drs. Gerstein, Bosch and Yusuf on diabetes and cardiovascular research. Dr. Malmberg was a professor of cardiology at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, where he pioneered research on the relationship between diabetes and heart disease, in particular heart attacks. Wanting to develop new medications based on some of his research work, Dr. Malmberg had a number of senior positions at various pharmaceutical companies, including Global Medical Science Director at AstraZeneca, and Global Clinical Leader for a major diabetes project at Roche. He passed away in 2018.

Janice Pogue

JANICE POGUE was an exceptional statistician who created the statistical group at the Population Health Research Institute where she worked for 22 years, and as a faculty member at McMaster University’s then named Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Her untimely death in 2016 was a major loss for PHRI, McMaster University, and the international biostatistics/clinical trials research community. The annual Janice Pogue Lectureship in Biostatistics was launched in 2017 to honour her legacy.