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.

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.

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.

Aristeidis Katsanos

Investigator

Aristeidis Katsanos is a neurologist at Hamilton Health Sciences, and a stroke/vascular neurology fellow at McMaster University/HHS. His academic focus is on the evidence-based evaluation of novel therapeutic approaches on acute stroke treatment and secondary stroke prevention. His research study on optimal blood pressure management after endovascular stroke treatment (DETECT) is supported by the New Investigator Fund from HHS.

He obtained his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Ioannina in Greece. After finishing his training in neurology, he completed a research fellowship at the Ruhr University of Bochum in Germany granted by the European Academy of Neurology. Aristeidis has actively participated in numerous research projects and international collaborations and serves in the editorial board of several academic medical journals, including Stroke.

Emma van Reekum

Investigator

Emma van Reekum is a psychiatry resident doctor in the clinician investigator program at McMaster University. She is undertaking a graduate degree in clinical epidemiology under the supervision of Salim Yusuf. Her graduate work primarily focuses on the BRAVE-Mind trial sub-study.

Her academic interests are in the bidirectional relationship between cardiometabolic health and neuropsychiatric disorders.

Julie My Van Nguyen

Investigator

Julie My Van Nguyen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is an attending physician in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre. Upon completing a Masters of Science in Healthcare Improvement and Patient Safety, she has led several multidisciplinary perioperative quality improvement projects, including initiatives to decrease surgical site infections and thromboembolic events after Gynecologic Oncology surgery as well as an opioid stewardship strategy. The main focus of her clinical research is to define the impact of frailty on postoperative and oncologic outcomes in Gynecologic Oncology, to in turn establish strategies to optimize modifiable risk factors.

Along with PHRI Scientist Maura Marcucci, Nguyen is the co-PI of the multicenter prospective study FARGO “Frailty Assessment for Risk Prediction in Gynecologic Oncology Patients Undergoing Surgery and Chemotherapy”. She is the recipient of the PHRI Transforming Tomorrow Today grant, the HHS Early Career Research Award, the JHCCF Thematic Research Grant, and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology “Most Promising Researcher” award.

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.

Kevin John Um

Research Fellow

Kevin John Um is a PHRI Research Fellow. He is a cardiology resident at McMaster University and an internal medicine specialist. He is completing his graduate studies in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact under the supervision of PHRI Investigator Dr. Emilie Belley-Côté. He is passionate about statistics and computing.

He is the founder of DataParty, an online platform for conducting evidence synthesis and meta-analysis. His research interests include heart failure, echocardiography, multi-modality imaging, atrial fibrillation, machine learning, and Bayesian statistics.

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 Senior 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.