Faculty

Dr. James Abel

Head, PHC Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Clinical Professor of Surgery, University of British Columbia. Associate Head, UBC Division of Cardiovascular Surgery

Dr Abel completed General Surgery and Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto, and joined the Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at St. Paul’s Hospital in 1993. He headed the Cardiac Transplant Program from 1996 until 2001, and has a clinical interest in higher risk coronary revascularization, left ventricular remodeling, and valve repair and replacement surgery as an alternative to transplantation. He was the first to do concomitant radiofrequency ablation for atrial fibrillation in the open heart in BC and is a leader in cardiac surgical training. Since arriving in BC he has been involved in outcomes analysis with the BC Cardiac Surgical Registry, and led the Cardiac Surgical Working Group of Cardiac Services British Columbia which developed and transitioned the Registry to the electronic web-based HeartIS system used today. He chairs the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Cardiac Surgery Quality Indicator group which, in partnership with CIHI, releases annual national cardiac surgical outcomes publicly.

Dr. Amir Ahmadi

Affiliate Assistant Professor

Dr. Ahmadi completed his Undergraduate Studies, Medical School,  Internal Medicine residency, and Cardiology fellowship at the University of British Columbia. He then moved to New York for advanced training in multimodality cardiovascular imaging including echocardiography, interventional echocardiography, cardiac CT angiography and cardiac MRI at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital . He subsequently joined the faculty at Mount Sinai Heart as an assistant professor and serves Co-Director of Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Mount Sinai St Luke’s Hospital. Dr Ahmadi is also an Affiliate Assistant Professor at University of British Columbia and performs clinical services in  Echocardiography, Advanced Cardiac Imaging and Lipid/ Prevention Clinic at St Paul’s Hospital. He has spearheaded the Early Atherosclerosis Clinic at St Paul’s Hospital which focuses on screening and early treatment of patients with family history of premature coronary artery disease.

Dr. Ahmadi’s research interests revolve around the use of multimodality imaging in understanding various cardiovascular disease processes. In particular, he has been focusing on using CT coronary angiography in early detection of atherosclerosis, aggressive treatment of subclinical atherosclerosis, fostering the understanding of mechanism of myocardial infarction and the relationship between high risk plaque features and ischemia. Dr. Ahmadi has published numerous original research articles and hypothesis generating manuscripts in high impact journals such as JACC, European Heart Journal, JAMA Cardiolgy, JACC CV Imaging, Circulation Research, Circulation CV imaging and Radiology. He has been the recipient of multiple institutional, national and international awards including the best abstract awards at the American College of Cardiology, Canadian Cardiovascular Congress and the Society of Cardiovascular CT annual Scientific Meetings. Dr. Ahmadi serves as an Emerging Editorial Consultant for JACC CV imaging and as a reviewer for JACC.

Dr. Jason Andrade

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Jason Andrade is a Cardiac Electrophysiologist at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), with a joint appointment at St Paul’s Hospital and the Montreal Heart Institute. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC), and an Adjunct Professor at the Université de Montréal. Dr. Andrade is the Director of the Electrophysiology Program at VGH, as well as Head of the Atrial Fibrillation Clinic at VGH. He also serves as co-chair of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Atrial Fibrillation Guidelines committee and serves as the medical lead for the atrial fibrillation care in the province of British Columbia. He previously served as chair of the education committee for the Canadian Heart Rhythm Society.

Dr. Andrade is the principal investigator of two ongoing multicenter clinical trials on cryoablation (the CIRCA-DOSE study and the EARLY-AF program). He has authored or co-authored over 130 scientific publications, predominantly in the domain of atrial fibrillation. He is also the author of a handbook of cardiac electrophysiology, a handbook of electrocardiogram interpretation, and several chapters related to atrial fibrillation ablation and cardiac cryoablation. He serves on the editorial board of the Heart Rhythm journal and the Journal of Atrial Fibrillation.

Dr. Andrade is a graduate of McMaster University (BSc; Summa Cum Laude) and the University of Ottawa (MD, Magna Cum Laude). He completed his Internal Medicine residency and Cardiology fellowship training at the University of British Columbia and a clinical and research fellowship in Cardiac Electrophysiology at the Montreal Heart Institute.

Dr. Eve Aymong

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Eve Aymong, MD, MSc, is a Clinical Associate Professor in the UBC Division of Cardiology. She works as a general cardiologist and interventional cardiologist primarily based at St. Paul’s Hospital with a cross appointment at Vancouver Acute. She is a graduate of University of Toronto medical school and received specialty training at the Universities of Toronto and Calgary. She also has a Masters of Science from Columbia University with a focus on patient oriented research and biostatistics.

Currently, she is the President of the specialty section of the BC Medical Association Society of Cardiology. Her responsibilities at St. Paul’s Hospital include chairing the quality assurance activities of the Morbidity and Mortality rounds of the Heart Centre. She is an active participant on the Research Ethics Board for Providence Health Care as well as a member on several committees of Cardiac Services BC.

Dr. Amanda Barlow

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr Barlow grew up in Adelaide South Australia. She trained in general pediatrics in Adelaide and pediatric cardiology in Adelaide (Adelaide Children’s Hospital) and Melbourne (Royal Children’s hospital) including a year in cardiac transplantation. She moved to Vancouver in 1994 and completed additional training in fetal echocardiography and electrophysiology.

She is a clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia and a member of the division of cardiology at St Paul’s hospital and the division of pediatrics at Royal Columbian hospital. She is also a visiting cardiologist at BC Women’s hospital. She is currently the director of the Heritable aortpathy clinic at SPH.

She divides her clinical time between the adult congenital heart, cardiac obstetric and heritable aortopathy clinics at SPH and her pediatric cardiology and fetal diagnostic clinics at RCH and BC Women’s.

Research interests include genetics and management of heritable aortopathies, diagnosis and management of congenital heart disease in the fetus.

Dr. Jamil Bashir

Surgical Director, Laser Lead Extraction and Device Implantation Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery, UBC BCMA Section Head

Dr Jamil Bashir is a Cardiovascular and Transplant surgeon at St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital with a primary academic interest in heart failure, cardiac implantable electronic devices and laser lead extraction. He is a full Clinical Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of British Columbia and the Director of the Lead Extraction Program. The St. Paul’s Hospital lead extraction program is a Western Canadian resource that manages patients from Manitoba west and is the largest program in Canada. Dr Bashir was the creator of the P6 program which has been instrumental in a complete reorganization of pacemaker device care in the province with a focus on quality.

In addition to winning the Moshier Memorial Gold medal as the top graduate from the University of Alberta Medical School, Jamil did a dual fellowship of complex device surgery in Goteborg Sweden and holds a certificate in Aortic Surgery from Houston Texas.
Dr Bashir is the principal investigator for the CLEAR (Canadian Lead Extraction Risk Study) with 2500 patients and was instrumental in the creation of the ongoing ATLAS randomized trial comparing risk of complications between transvenous and subcutaneous defibrillators.

Dr. Matthew Bennett

Clinical Associate Professor

DHCC 9th Floor
2775 Laurel St
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

Dr. Vicki Bernstein

Clinical Professor Emerita

Dr. Robert Boone

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Boone is an Interventional Cardiologist based at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver having trained in Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He has an active interest in minimally invasive techniques for heart valve intervention, and has led the establishment of a MitraClip program in British Columbia.

He has a keen interest in renal denervation for refractory hypertension and is working with colleagues in Internal Medicine, Nephrology, and Interventional Radiology to bring this emerging technology to patients in BC. He is involved in new stent technology and imaging for coronary artery disease including the emerging area of bioresorbable platforms.

In addition to his interventional practice he maintains a general cardiology clinic in Vancouver, an outreach clinic in Whitehorse, and active clinical role in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. His academic interests centre around epidemiology and outcomes research related to new technologies. In addition he is collaborating with investigators looking at ethnic variations in cardiac outcomes, and the influence of HIV on coronary artery disease outcomes, the etiology and outcomes of stent thrombosis and the role of FFR in routine interventional practice.

Dr. Liam Brunham

Associate Professor

Liam Brunham is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, and an Associate Member of the Division of Cardiology at the University of British Columbia. He is a Canada Research Chair in Precision Cardiovascular Disease Prevention. He is the Physician Lead of the Healthy Heart Program Prevention clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital, one of the largest speciality lipid clinics in Canada. Dr. Brunham completed the MD/PhD program, residency in Internal Medicine, and a fellowship in General Internal Medicine at UBC, followed by pursuing the Clinician Investigator Program in Singapore. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, and is certified by the American Boards of Internal Medicine and Clinical Lipidology. He leads a research team at the UBC Centre for Heart Lung Innovation that focuses on the role of genetics in metabolic and cardiovascular disease and the response to medications. He has been recognized with a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Award, a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar award, a Heart & Stroke Foundation National New Investigator award, and in 2017 was recognized as one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40.

Dr. Nathan Brunner

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Brunner obtained his degree in medicine from the University of Alberta in 2006. He subsequently trained in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the University of British Columbia from 2006-2012. He received extra training in the field of pulmonary hypertension at Stanford University in California from 2012-2013. His research interests include the clinical management of pulmonary hypertension and the assessment of pulmonary hypertension through hemodynamics and non-invasive imaging.

Dr. Paul Bui

Cardiovascular Surgeon

Dr. John Cairns

Professor (tenure)

John Cairns is a cardiologist whose research has focused on the modification and non-invasive measurement of myocardial infarct size in humans and dogs, antithrombotic therapies for acute ischemic syndromes and for atrial fibrillation, and post-myocardial infarction arrhythmias. He practiced cardiology for many years in Ontario, focusing on acute coronary care and invasive cardiology. He a member of the CCS group which developed the 2010 Atrial Fibrillation Guidelines and 2012, 2014 and 2016 Updates, chairing the chapter on stroke prevention. He has held a number of academic leadership roles, including Coordinator of the Regional Cardiovascular Program in Hamilton (1979-86), Chair of Medicine, McMaster University (1988-96) and Dean of Medicine, UBC (1996-2003). As Dean, he worked closely with UBC and the provincial government to build the rationale and plans for the two-fold expansion of the Medical School in partnership with the Universities of Victoria and Northern BC. He led the CIHR Clinical Research Initiative in 2004-05, which proposed a variety of programs to strengthen the support of Clinical research in Canada, and he was a member of CIHR’s External Advisory Group on Multi-site Clinical Studies (2012). He is currently co-chair of the Steering Committee of CANNeCTIN, a Canadian and international clinical trials network funded by CFI and CIHR and headquartered at McMaster University. He is the immediate Past-President of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Dr. Andrew Campbell

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Ronald Carere

Clinical Professor

Dr. Carere received his MD degree from the University of Ottawa (1984). He did postgraduate training at the University of Toronto receiving his Fellowship in Internal Medicine1988 and Cardiology in 1990. He did a Fellowship in Interventional Cardiology and Research at Toronto General Hospital in 1989-91.

He joined the Division of Cardiology at St Paul’s in 1991. His clinical practice focuses on Cardiac Interventions with a special interest in structural congenital heart disease including ASD/PFO and PDA closure, co-arctation stenting, transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement, and alcohol ablation of HOCM.

Dr. Carere has served in a number of medical leadership positions including Associate Head of the Division of Cardiology (1998 to 2001), Physician Program Director of the Heart Centre (2001-2010), Regional Medical Director of the Cardiac Sciences Program for Vancouver Coastal Health (2004-2010). He became Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee for Providence Health Care (2006-2010). His administrative roles evolved to Acting Vice President of Medical Affairs for Providence Health Care in May of 2010, a role he formally assumed in April of 2011.

Dr. Carere is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and maintains active clinical research interests including work with the BC Cardiac Registry database and in structural heart disease. In 2000 he received the Martin M. Hoffman Award for Excellence in Research from the St Paul’s Hospital Department of Medicine and in 2013 an award of Merit for contributions to the St Paul’s Hospital Department of Medicine.

Dr. Shanta Chakrabarti

Clinical Associate Professor

After graduating from the University of Calcutta, Dr. Chakrabarti obtained his training in Congenital Cardiology in the United Kingdom (Southampton and Bristol) with further Electrophysiology training at the University of British Columbia.

His focus of interest includes arrhythmia management of Congenital Heart Disease, complex ablations with 3D mapping and advanced device therapy (ICD and cardiac resynchronization therapy).

Research interests include arrhythmias with Congenital Heart Disease, Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy, and Genetic Arrhythmias.

Dr. Chakrabarti is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, and the American College of Cardiology and Heart Rhythm Society.

He is the Director of the Electrophysiology Fellowship Program of the University of British Columbia and the Lead Physician for Device Services and Congenital Heart Disease Arrhythmia Services at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.

Dr. Sammy Chan

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Sammy Chan completed his undergraduate medical training at the University of British Columbia. He has also additional postgraduate cardiology training at the University of Alberta, echocardiography training at the University of Alberta, research nuclear cardiology at University of California, Los Angeles.

He is currently a clinical cardiologist and the medical director of the Healthy Heart Program at St. Paul’s Hospital. He is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia.

His current clinical and research interests include primary and secondary cardiac prevention, exercise training methodology, alternative dietary approaches, stress management, determinants of lifestyle modification, endothelial function, subclinical atherosclerosis, refractory angina and molecular approaches to diagnosis and management of coronary atherosclerosis.

Dr. Anson Cheung

Surgical Director, Cardiac Transplantation Clinical Professor of Surgery, UBC

Dr. Anson Cheung is the Director of Cardiac Transplantation of B.C. and Clinical Professor of Surgery with the University of British Columbia, Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiovascular Surgery. Practicing since 2000, he is currently on staff at St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital. He is a graduate of the University of Manitoba with post-graduate work at Stanford University, University of Western Ontario and the University of Pittsburgh. He joined the academic staff at UBC in 2001 and St. Paul’s Hospital in 2000. His specialties include cardiac transplant surgery, mechanical circulatory assist devices, transcatheter valve therapy and off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCABG). Dr. Cheung has established the VAD (Ventricular Assist Device) Program at St. Paul’s Hospital which is the first VAD program in Western Canada. He is also a leader in transcatheter valve therapy. He is currently involved in numerous research projects along with other works in progress. He was also the recipient of the Department of Surgery Concept Awards in 2003 as well as the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery President’s Award in 2010 and 2015. He continues to foster cardiac surgical education by participating in numerous symposiums and post-graduate courses worldwide.

Dr. Tiffany Chong

Cardiac Surgery Hospitalist at Vancouver General Hospital

Dr. Annie Chou

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Annie Chou, MD, FRCPC is the director of General Cardiology at St. Paul’s Hospital and also sees patients in the Cardiac Obstetrics Clinic, the Atrial Fibrillation Clinic, and on the wards at St. Paul’s Hospital. She is a member of the Divisions of Cardiology at St Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital. She is also a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Cardiology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Chou grew up in North Vancouver, starting her medical career as a Candy-striper at Lions Gate Hospital. She completed her undergraduate studies in Honours Physiology at the University of British Columbia, followed by her Doctor of Medicine Degree, Internal Medicine Residency, and Cardiology Fellowship, also at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Chou then worked at Lions Gate Hospital and the North Shore Heart Centre for 3 years, where she started the Rapid Access to Cardiac Expertise Clinic and helped advocate for Cardiac Intensive Care Beds. She was then recruited back to St. Paul’s Hospital as the Director of General Cardiology and is working towards creating and expanding General Cardiology. Dr. Chou was previously active in clinical research but is currently focussing her attention on clinical care. Her clinical interests are in all aspects of General Cardiology, including investigating cardiac symptoms and managing arrhythmias, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, valvular abnormalities, heart failure, and women with heart disease.

Dr. Rudy Chow

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Rudy Chow is a UBC clinical assistant professor and a member of the UBC Division of Cardiology and Geriatrics. He has a position as the first geriatric cardiologist in BC, working at Mount St. Joseph’s Hospital (MSJH). MSJH in Vancouver is a leader in the field of Eldercare. Since 2011, the hospital has developed and improved cardiac treatment for the elderly patients and residents in our care, establishing a new university-affiliated outpatient cardiac clinic. Rudy will provide a unique service to the elderly in East Vancouver. For the first time, geriatric patients will have a treatment plan charted that integrates expertise from both the cardiology and geriatric fields.

Rudy has an education focus and will be offering clinical electives to residents and fellows in the growing field of geriatric-cardiology. Topic areas of importance include frailty in cardiovascular disease, risk stratification in the elderly, interactions of comorbid illness on cardiovascular care, cardiac interventions in the elderly, and barriers to cardiovascular care in the elderly.

Patricia Choy

Cardiology NP at Vancouver General Hospital

Leah Christoff

Cardiology NP at Vancouver General Hospital

Leah Christoff completed her MSN / Nurse Practitioner degree at UBC. She was within the inaugural class of graduates and one of the first NPs to join Vancouver Coastal Health as a family nurse practitioner. She completed her undergraduate degree in nursing at the University of Victoria.

She is one of the first nurse practitioners in the VGH Heart Function Clinic and assisted with its inception as a collaborative and multidisciplinary team under the guidance of cardiology champions.

Her passion for heart failure care has led the development of Heart Failure Care in the Home Innovation Project HF-CHIP for the frailest clients.

She is a founding member of the BC Nurse Practitioners Association and spent many years on their executive expanding NP practice. Past adjunct professor UNBC.

Leah is on the newly formed Board for the Department of Nurse Practitoners where she is the executive lead for Vancouver acute / ambulatory NPs. She is the chair of the QA/ QI / Critical incidence committee for the Department of Nurse Practitioners at VGH.

Dr. Brian Clarke

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Brian Clarke is a heart failure cardiologist with specialization in cardiac transplantation & mechanical circulatory support.   He has experience and interest across the spectrum of heart failure and cardiomyopathy with an additional area of focus in cardiooncology.    He is clinical associate professor in the department of medicine, division of cardiology at the University of British Columbia with academic interests and experience in education, outcomes research, and clinical program innovation.  Dr. Clarke obtained his medical degree and completed internal medicine and cardiology residences at Dalhousie University in Halifax NS, moving on to Stanford University to complete subspecialty training in advanced heart failure, cardiac transplantation, and mechanical circulatory support.  He returned to Halifax as active medical staff before being recruited to the University of Calgary and Libin Cardiovascular Institute, where he became the medical director of the cardiac transplant and MCS programs and program director of the heart failure training program in 2018.  He launched an invasive heart failure monitoring program in 2018.  Dr. Clarke joined the division of cardiology at UBC and St. Paul’s Hospital/Vancouver General Hospital in October 2021.  Dr. Clarke is active in education and has won teaching awards for resident education.  He has been a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada adult cardiology subspecialty committee, chair of the AFC in advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation, and the adult cardiology exam board.  Dr. Clarke is the current president of the Canadian Cardiac Transplant Network, an official affiliate of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, and is senior advisor to Canadian Blood Services, Health Canada, and CIHI on matters of transplantation.

Dr. Richard Cook

Dr. Simone Cowan

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Margot Davis

Clinical Associate Professor

Margot Davis is a cardiologist at VGH and SPH and the Director of the UBC Cardiology-Oncology Program. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Physiology at McGill University before attending medical school at the University of British Columbia. She stayed at UBC for her Internal Medicine residency and Cardiology fellowship and served as Chief Resident for both Medicine and Cardiology. She then completed fellowships in Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology and Cardio-Oncology & Cardiac Amyloidosis at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also a candidate for a Masters of Science in clinical epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Her research interests are focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and management of cardiotoxicity related to cancer therapy and the epidemiology of heart disease in cancer survivors. She also has interests in cardiac amyloidosis and advanced heart failure. She is a co-PI on the Canadian Cancer Society-funded ELEVATE trial of eplerenone for the prevention of anthracycline cardiotoxicity in breast cancer patients.

Dr. Marc Deyell

Clinical Associate Professor

Marc is a native of Calgary, Alberta, Canada and received his Medical Doctorate from the University of Alberta.  He completed a residency in Internal Medicine and Masters of Epidemiology at the University of Calgary and his Cardiology and Electrophysiology training at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.  Following this, he undertook an advanced fellowship in Electrophysiology (Heart Rhythm Management) at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, focusing on complex ablation.

He joined the Heart Rhythm team at St. Paul’s and Vancouver General Hospitals of the University of British Columbia in February 2012.  He is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.  He is currently the Director of Heart Rhythm Research and the Director of the Electrophysiology Laboratory at St. Paul’s.

His clinical and research interests center around the epidemiology, health outcomes and ablation of complex arrhythmias.  He is an active researcher, holding current funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.  He is the recipient of a career investigator award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.

Dr. Christopher Fordyce

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Christopher Fordyce is a Clinical Assistant Professor within the Division of Cardiology at the University of British Columbia, Director, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Vancouver General Hospital, and a Scientist at the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHÉOS). He completed a clinical research fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease at the Duke Clinical Research Institute, as well as further subspecialty training in Cardiac Critical Care at Duke University Hospital. His clinical and research interests lie predominately in cardiac critical care, including myocardial infarction and cardiac arrest, as well as non-invasive testing for stable coronary disease and antithrombotic therapy in atrial fibrillation. Following medical school at McGill University, he trained in both Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the University of British Columbia. He also completed the Program in Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard School of Public Health and a Master’s of Health Science in Clinical Research through the Duke School of Medicine.

Dr. Anthony Fung

Clinical Professor

GLDHCC – Level 9 Cardiology
2775 Laurel Street
Vancouver, BC V5Z1M9

Belinda-Ann Furlan

Cardiology NP at St. Paul’s Hospital

Belinda-Ann Furlan started her cardiology nursing career in the Heart Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital as a RN from 1999-2006 before obtaining her Masters of Science in Nursing/Nurse Practitioner degree at the University of British Columbia in 2006. She subsequently trained at the University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital with the cardiac surgery and heart failure teams. In 2007, she reunited with the St. Paul’s Hospital Heart Centre developing clinical experience in cardiac surgery, general cardiology, interventional cardiology, heart failure and heart rhythm/atrial fibrillation. Her areas of interest lie within general cardiology including lifestyle management in chronic disease, weight loss, heart failure and atrial fibrillation.
Belinda was the first recipient of the Terina Werry Nurse Practitioner award in 2008. She has participated in the development of provincial and national initiatives for the education and best clinical practice for heart failure patients and atrial fibrillation clinics. Belinda is active in a consultant role for the BC College of Nurses and Midwives as an examiner for nurse practitioner licencing exams and has held the position of deputy chief examiner.

Belinda has an interest in biomedical and research ethics. Belinda is proud to work for a catholic organization and carries out her vocation through the mission, vision and values of Providence Health Care in her daily interactions with her patients and families. She is driven to provide compassionate care for all. Outside of her occupational vocation, Belinda is a dedicated wife, mother of three, sister and daughter.

Dr. Ken Gin

Clinical Professor

Dr. Gin graduated MD at UBC in 1985; completed his internal medicine & adult cardiology training, followed by an echocardiography fellowship. Appointed by the UBC Department of Medicine and VGH Division of Cardiology in 1992, he achieved the rank of Clinical Professor in 2008. He was Director, UBC Postgraduate Cardiology Program for 10 years until 2009; under his tutelage, the program grew from 2 residents to 17. From 2009 to 2012 he served as Head of the UBC Division of Cardiology for Vancouver Acute. Since 2009 to the present, he has served as Head of the VGH Division of Cardiology. He has received numerous teaching awards, including the prestigious 2010 UBC Killam Teaching Prize and the 2011 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Distinguished Teaching Award. He has published in the NEJM, Lancet, JACC and other high impact peer-reviewed journals. In 2013 he received the Clinical Excellence award from VGH.

Dr. Jasmine Grewal

Clinical Professor

Dr. Jasmine Grewal MD FRCPC, is a clinical professor at the University of British Columbia and a member of the Divisions of Cardiology at St Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital. With fellowship training in Adult Congenital Heart Disease/Pregnancy and Heart Disease (Toronto General Hospital) and Echocardiography (Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN), Dr. Grewal is actively involved in clinical and research activities in these fields. Dr. Grewal focuses her clinical time in the Pacific Adult Congenital Heart Disease and Cardiac Obstetrics Programs at St.Paul’s Hospital. Additionally, Dr. Grewal is an Echocardiographer and also works in the cardiac intensive care unit at St Paul’s Hospital. She is actively engaged in clinical research and currently involved as a primary and co-investigator in numerous single center and multi-center research studies in the areas of congenital heart disease and pregnancy and heart disease. Dr. Grewal is a recipient of the St Paul’s Hospital Physician Scholar Award (2010-2012).

Nancy Gwadry

Cardiology NP at Vancouver General Hospital

Attended the University of Florida and graduated in 1993 with a degree in Nursing. Completed a Fellowship in Critical Care at Washington Hospital Center in 1996. Graduated from Rush University, Chicago, in 2000 with a Masters in Nursing, Acute Care Nurse Practitioner.

Extensive experience in cardiovascular area, previously worked in Calgary, Foothills Medical Centre in Cardiac Surgery for 12 years. Provincial Director of CCCN Alberta from 2011-2015.
Nurse Practitioner in the Cardiac Function Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital since 2015.

Participates in the Quality Assurance Committee for Nurse Practitioners at Vancouver General Hospital.

Active Volunteer with West Point Grey Academy and West Coast Squash Academy.

Tracy Gwozd

Cardiac Surgery NP at St. Paul’s Hospital

Tracy Gwozd is an alumnus of the UBC School of Nursing, having completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2002 and her Masters in Nursing- Nurse Practitioner in 2012. Tracy has had an accomplished career within St. Paul’s Heart Center, with clinical experience in areas of cardiology, interventional cardiology, hearth rhythm, and most recently cardiac surgery.

Tracy is the recipient of the Nini-M. Harris-Lowe Memorial Award in Nursing in recognition for efforts to advance nursing care of patients with cardiovascular disease. Tracy has worked as project lead for several QI initiatives aimed to improve delivery of care of patients with atrial fibrillation on regional and provincial levels. Tracy has acted as invited lecturer on topics in cardiology and cardiac surgery at hospital, regional, and national levels. Tracy is a passionate advocate for increasing public awareness and understanding of the NP profession. Tracy’s clinical interests include the integration of technology into systems of patient care delivery.

Dr. Nathaniel Hawkins

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr Hawkins is Clinical Associate Professor at UBC and holder of the Dr. Charles Kerr Distinguished Scholar in Heart Rhythm Management. He holds dual certification in Heart Function and Heart Rhythm management, providing an innovative perspective on integration of technology with chronic disease management. He is the Physician Lead for the Vancouver Coastal Health Regional Heart Failure Program, and Director of the Heart Function Clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital, the Inherited Cardiomyopathy Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital, and the Regional Heart Failure Audit. He is Co-Chair at the Centre for Cardiovascular Innovation for Investigator Initiated Studies (https://cci-cic.org/).

His research examines cardiovascular outcomes, health services, and comorbidities in patients with heart failure and arrhythmia, and investigates patient management using cardiac implantable devices, remote monitoring, and digital health solutions. He has published in leading journals including Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), and European Heart Journal. He has 97 peer-reviewed publications, h-index 30.

Education

• Medical degree: MBChB, University of Edinburgh
• Research degree: MD, Doctorate of Medicine, University of Glasgow
• Research degree: MPH, University of Liverpool
• Residency: University of Edinburgh
• Fellowship: Heart Failure and Devices, University of Liverpool
• Fellowship: Heart Failure and Devices, University of British Columbia

Dr. Brett Heilbron

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Heilbron completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Cape Town (South Africa), and then practiced as a rural family physician in Newfoundland and Manitoba for 4 years. He completed Internal Medicine and Cardiology training at the University of British Columbia in 1995. He has Level 3 Certification in Cardiac Computed Tomography and is a Diplomate of the Certification Board in Cardiac Computed Tomography and a Fellow of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.

He is currently a Clinical and Invasive Diagnostic Cardiologist and Co-Director of the Advanced Cardiac Imaging Program at St. Pauls’ Hospital / Providence Heart + Lung Institute, and a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia.

His interests include noninvasive cardiac imaging and information technology.

Sample list of recent key publications:

Heilbron B and Leipsic J. Submillisievert coronary computed tomography angiography using adaptive statistical reconstruction: A new reality. Can J Cardiol 26(1): 35-36, January 2010.

Heilbron B, Andrews G, Isserow S, and Forster B. Coronary computed tomographic angiography in British Columbia: A review. BCMJ. 2007;49:78-84.

Heilbron B., Klein GJ, Talajic M., Guerra PG. 2004 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Consensus Conference: atrial fibrillation – management of atrial fibrillation in the emergency department and following acute myocardial infarction, Can J Cardiol 2005;21(Suppl B):61B–66B.

Dr. Harry Henning

Associate Professor Emeritus

Dr. Victor Huckell

Clinical Professor

Dr. Victor F. Huckell earned his degree in Medicine from the University of British Columbia, Canada and is certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in both Internal Medicine and Cardiology (FRCPC).

During the 1960’s as a student at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Huckell was the recipient of numerous undergraduate awards ranging from Government of British Columbia Scholarships to the Yates Memorial Award, the Mosby Scholarship Award, the Florence Heighway Medical Award, the Dr. A. E. Trites Memorial Prize in Obstetrics and Cardiology, The H. Rock Robinson Prize in Surgery, The Dr. A. B. Schinbein Memorial Scholarship, The Hamber Scholarship in Medicine, and the Dean MM Weaver Gold Medal.

As a postgraduate trainee his achievements were no less impressive, having received the PARI-BC Award for Teaching and Excellence and various other service and teaching awards.

Having been a general practitioner on Vancouver Island from 1970 to 1972 he returned to the University of British Columbia where he held various positions at the Vancouver General Hospital in association with the University of British Columbia including Chief Medical Resident. He then moved to Toronto where he served as Senior and then Chief Resident in Cardiology at the Toronto Hospital in association with the University of Toronto.

In 1978, Dr. Huckell returned to Vancouver. He currently serves as a Clinical Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) at the University of British Columbia; Invasive Cardiologist, on Staff at the Vancouver General Hospital. He has continued to receive numerous awards for teaching endeavors; including the University of British Columbia Excellence in Teaching Award (Killam Award), the St. Paul’s Hospital Bruce Shallard Lecturer award (Distinguished Teaching), the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Distinguished Teacher Award, the UBC Division of Cardiology Clinical Mentor Award, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Visionary Award twice, the UBC Department of Medicine Master Teacher Award, the UBC Clinical Faculty Award for Career Excellence in Clinical Teaching, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Since 1978, Dr. Huckell has held numerous teaching positions and served on numerous committees. For example, in 1981 he founded and served as Director of the British Columbia Cardiac Society and in 1985 he served as Regional Governor of the American Heart Association Council on Clinical Cardiology. In 1978, he became the first Postgraduate Training Program Director for Cardiology at the University of British Columbia and was responsible for creating a new Subspecialty Training Program.

In 1988, Dr. Huckell co-founded and directed the Congenital Heart Advisory Team subsequently renamed as the Pacific Adult Congenital Heart (PACH) Group – an interdisciplinary group for adults with congenital heart disease. As a follow-up 3 years later, he co-founded the Canadian Adult Congenital cardiac Heart Disease Network (CACH Network) a similar group with a national scope. He founded an annual national cardiology resident review course (National Consensus Conference or NATICON) which developed into the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Annual Resident Training Day.

Other commitments to national and international teaching positions, professional societies and committees including being a previous director of the Heart and Stroke Foundations of both British Columbia and Canada, Counselor of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, past Chair of the Royal College Specialty Committee on Cardiology, previous member of the UBC Medical School of Admission Committee, previous member of the UBC Clinical Faculty Committee, and past regional Governor for the American College of Cardiology.

He is currently a member of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Continuing Professional Development Committee, its External Relations Committee and its Membership Committee as well as being President-Elect of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Academy.

In addition to his Fellowships with the Royal College of Canada he is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Fellow of the American Heart Association, Fellow of the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Intervention, Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine (Cardiology) and an American Society of Hypertension Clinical Hypertension Specialist.

He is as noted above a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. In this role he runs a busy teaching office Cardiology practice and has had the privilege of mentoring over 520 Residents and 310 4th year Medical Students to date. He is the Director of Education and is on the executive committee for the UBC Division of Cardiology.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Dr. Huckell has delivered more than 2005 presentations on Cardiology and patterns of practice. He has co-authored 4 National Practice Guidelines (Adult Congenital Heart disease, Women and Cardiovascular Health, Peripheral Arterial Disease, Stable Ischemic Heart Disease), 53 peer-reviewed articles, 66 abstracts, 2 textbook chapters and 41 non-peers reviewed papers. He has also created 59 special education projects including enduring materials such as teaching DVD’s, CDs and educational facilitation guides.

He has expertise in developing effective teaching techniques for enhancing the patterns of practice for busy clinical practitioners. He also has established particular expertise in adult congenital heart disease, valvular heart disease and obstetrical cardiology.

Dr. Karin Humphries

Associate Professor Emerita

Dr. Karin Humphries is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and holds the UBC-Heart and Stroke Foundation Professorship in Women’s Cardiovascular Health. She is the inaugural Scientific Director for the BC Centre for Improved Cardiovascular Health. In this role, Dr. Humphries is committed to improving health outcomes for British Columbians at risk for or living with cardiovascular disease by generating and applying new evidence to improve the delivery of cardiovascular care in BC. Dr. Humphries has a doctoral degree in epidemiology and a background in biochemistry, kinesiology and experimental pathology. Her primary research focus is on sex differences in the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of patients with coronary heart disease. She is currently conducting studies on the sex differences in health-related quality of life in young adults (

Dr. Andrew Ignaszewski

Clinical Professor

The Healthy Heart Program, Rm. 180, Level 1, Burrard Building
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

• Medical Director of Heart Function Clinic, St. Paul’s Hospital
• Clinical Professor of Medicine (Cardiology), University of British Columbia

Dr. Ignaszewski received his medical training in Poland. He came to Canada in 1983 and completed Internal Medicine training at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia before moving to the University of Alberta where he finished Adult Cardiology training. He was recruited for medical leadership of a premier cardiac rehabilitation and prevention program at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia in 1994.

His other areas of interest include management of severe heart failure and heart transplantation, including novel multidisciplinary approaches to the treatment of the disease with specialized clinics and quality improvement measures. Dr. Ignaszewski is the Director of the Heart Function Clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital and a former director of the UBC Heart Transplant Program at St. Paul’s Hospital. He is also Provincial Lead in Heart Failure.

Dr. Ignaszewski’s research interests are cardiac rehabilitation and prevention, heart failure and patient outcomes following various cardiovascular interventions. He has published 77 papers and 128 abstracts in these areas.

Dr. Ignaszewski is also involved in the teaching of medical students and medical residents at St. Paul’s Hospital. He has received teaching awards from the University of British Columbia such as Best Teacher during a clinical rotation, Excellence in Clinical Teaching Skills and Teacher of the Year Awards. He has also received an award for Excellence in Health Promotion from BC Medical Association and publication award for original research.

Dr. Saul Isserow

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Isserow graduated in Medicine at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1986, and then moved to Canada where he practiced as a family physician until pursuing a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation, and later a residency in internal medicine at the University of British Columbia. He completed a fellowship in Cardiology at UBC in 1996, and has been pursuing his career as a Cardiologist at VGH and UBC Hospital since 1997. He is actively involved in both patient care and research and is the Head of Clinical Cardiology at UBC as well as the Director of the VGH Centre for Cardiovascular Health. He has received numerous awards, including the Award for Clinical Excellence from Vancouver Coastal Health for 2008 and Master Teacher Awards from the Department Of Medicine and from the Department of Anesthesia. He is the founder and Medical Director of Sports Cardiology BC.

Dr. Mike Janusz

Dr. John Jue

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Ken Kaila

Clinical Assistant Professor (joint appt with Critical Care)

Dr. Kaila is a clinical assistant professor at UBC. He works in the cardiac intensive care unit, intensive care unit, general cardiology clinics, and inpatient services. He also works in the intensive care unit at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital. He attended medical school at the University of Manitoba. He then completed Internal Medicine and Cardiology training at the University of Alberta prior to pursuing further specialization in Critical Care Medicine at the University of British Columbia. His clinical interests are in general cardiology and intensive care including cardiac arrests, hemodynamic assessment, and patient safety.

Dr. Marla Kiess

Clinical Professor

Dr. Marla Kiess attended medical school at UBC, did her cardiology residency in Toronto and a research fellowship in Nuclear Cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is the Director of the Pacific Adult Congenital Heart Clinic, the Electrodiagnostic and Echocardiography Laboratories at Providence Health Care and Clinical Professor of Medicine and Radiology at UBC. She was an examiner for the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada. She spent many years serving on review and policy committees for the BC and Canadian Heart Foundations and was co-chair of the clinical trials committee. She has been President of the BC Cardiac Society and the Canadian Society of Nuclear Cardiology. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Adult Congenital Heart Network and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology. She has been on the organizing committees of many scientific meetings. She continues to be an abstract reviewer and has served as Chair of scientific sessions for the AHA, the ACC, ASNC, ICNC, CCS, and SNM. She was on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology and has been a reviewer for many journals, including the JNC, JACC, JNM, AJC, Canadian Journal of Cardiology. Her research interests are in Nuclear Cardiology, Adult Congenital Heart Disease and heart disease in women.

Dr. Jong Moo (Steve) Kim

Dr. Steve Kim is a clinical instructor in the UBC Department of Surgery and an attending cardiac surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital. His subspecialty areas of interest include surgical treatment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and aortic surgery.

After finishing his medical education and cardiac surgery residency training at UBC, Dr. Kim completed a fellowship in advanced cardiovascular surgery at Mayo Clinic. In 2019, he returned to Vancouver and helped establish the province’s first dedicated surgical septal myectomy program, which has since become an integral part of the HCM Clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital.

Dr. Kim is actively pursuing clinical and outcomes research, and he is currently involved in developing a provincial database for septal reduction therapy. Through the multidisciplinary collaboration at the HCM Clinic, he hopes to continue improving the quality and accessibility of comprehensive surgical care for the HCM patient population in British Columbia.

Dr. Andrew Krahn

Professor (tenure)

Dr. Krahn is a Professor in the Division of Cardiology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Krahn has research funded by a Foundation grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research through 2027, with 416 peer reviewed publications. Current research interests include investigation of genetic causes of arrhythmias, causes of loss of consciousness and implantable arrhythmia devices. Dr. Krahn is the founder of the Hearts in Rhythm Organization (HiRO, https://hiro.heartsinrhythm.ca), a Canadian network of inherited arrhythmia clinics. HiRO aims to facilitate collaborative research and engage patients and families with inherited arrhythmias, as well as ensure high quality and standardized care across Canada. He is the Sauder Family Chair and UBC Chief of Cardiology, and the Paul Brunes Chair in Heart Rhythm Disorders. He is the President of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and Vice President of the Heart Rhythm Society.

Dr. Zachary Laksman

Assistant Professor

Dr. Zachary Laksman is the Director of the St. Paul’s Hospital Atrial Fibrillation Clinic and the Director of the St. Paul’s Hospital Inherited Arrhythmia Clinic. Dr. Laksman specializes in the management of cardiac arrhythmias, and simple and complex ablation and device implantation.

Dr. Laksman is a clinician-scientist with a specific focus on cardiogenetics, stem cell disease modeling, and personalized medicine. His research has been published in scientific journals such as JACC, Heart Rhythm, Circulation Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, American Journal of Cardiology, Canadian Journal of Cardiology, Journal of Cardiac Electrophysiology, Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, and Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews. Dr. Laksman’s research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health and Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.

Dr. Laksman holds Dr. Charles Kerr distinguished Scholar in Cardiovascular Genetics.

Dr. Sandra Lauck

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Sandra Lauck holds the first UBC School of Nursing appointment as an embedded nurse clinician scientist. She previously served as the Clinical Nurse Specialist for the Vancouver transcatheter heart valve program, and the provincial director of the Cardiac Services BC structural heart disease program. She completed her PhD at UBC, and received a Heart & Stroke Foundation Nursing Research and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Doctoral awards. Her clinical expertise and leadership was recognized with the College of Registered Nurses Award of Distinction and the Canadian Health Care Leaders Excellence in Nursing Award.

Dr. Lauck shares her time between the cardiac program at St. Paul’s Hospital and UBC. She leads a program of research focused on cardiac health service delivery and the study of patients’ experiences of care. She is a scientist of the Centre for Heart Valve Innovation. Among other studies, she is a co-investigator of the Multidisciplinary, Multimodality but Minimalist Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (3M TAVR), the Safety and Feasibility of Early Discharge Using the Portico Self-Expanding for Transfemoral TAVR (SAFE TAVR), and the Protein and Exercise to Reverse Frailty in Older Men and Women Undergoing AVR (PERFORM AVR), all multisite, international trials. She is committed to linking clinical practice, academia and policy through engagement with patients, clinicians, researchers and government.

Dr. Benny Lau

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Benny Lau completed his medical education, and subsequently Internal Medicine residency, Cardiology residency, as well as Cardiac Rehabilitation and Preventive Cardiology fellowship at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is a clinical assistant professor with the Department of Medicine at UBC, and is the program director for the UBC Cardiac Rehabilitation and Preventive Cardiology fellowship. He is the director of General Cardiology and the Cardiology Stat Clinic at VGH, associate director of the SPH Cardiac Rehabilitation Program, and the medical director of the YMCA Healthy Heart Program.

Dr. Scott Lear

Adjunct Professor

Dr. Scott Lear (www.CoHeaRT.ca) is a Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and the inaugural Pfizer/Heart and Stroke Foundation Chair in Cardiovascular Prevention Research at St. Paul’s Hospital as well as past recipient of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research new investigator awards. Dr. Lear received his PhD at the University of British Columbia which demonstrated a modest intervention for the maintenance of lifestyle behaviours and risk factors following a four-month cardiac rehabilitation program resulted in a reduction of global risk compared to usual care. Building on the success of these findings, Dr. Lear leads the British Columbia Alliance for Telehealth Policy and Research (www.BCATPR.ca), a team of university-based researchers and health authority decision-makers to develop and evaluate Internet-based solutions for chronic disease management. To date, a ‘virtual’ cardiac rehabilitation program and a ‘virtual’ heart failure clinic have been successfully evaluated a multi-chronic disease telehealth solution is currently being investigated. In addition, Dr. Lear leads the Multi-cultural Community Health Assessment Trial (M-CHAT) which is an ongoing investigation to identify the role of ethnic background in risk for obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Results to date indicate that men and women of Chinese and South Asian origin have greater amounts of inner-abdominal fat than Europeans, even at the same body fat. This results in increased risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease in these groups. Future research will explore the genetic and socio-cultural determinants of cardiovascular disease risk in these populations. Another area of Dr. Lear’s research consists of the identification of environmental characteristics that may act as facilitators and barriers of healthy lifestyle habits that can then determine downstream cardiovascular disease risk (the so-called ‘built environment). Working with other investigators of the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiologic (PURE) study, Dr. Lear will look at how one’s community can influence disease risk. Together, these projects will translate into effective prevention and management policies and programs for cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Andrea Lee

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Andrea Lee is a Clinical Assistant Professor with the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She completed her Doctor of Medicine degree as well as her Internal Medicine and Cardiology residencies at UBC. She went on to complete her Clinical Electrophysiology subspecialty fellowship at UBC and Western University. Outside of her general cardiology practice, she also sees patients in the Atrial Fibrillation Clinic and Cardiac Device Clinic at VGH.

Dr. Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee, FRCPC, completed General Internal medicine and Adult Cardiology residency at the University of Manitoba, followed by advanced echocardiography at Vancouver General Hospital with the University of British Columbia.

He has a passion for general cardiology and a special interest in point of care ultrasound systems and applications of artificial intelligence with heart and lung point of care ultrasound.

Dr. Jonathon Leipsic

Professor (tenure)

Jonathon A. Leipsic, M.D., F.R.C.P.C. F.S.C.C.T is the Chairman of the Department of Radiology for Providence Health Care, Vancouver Coastal Health and the Vice Chairman of Research for the UBC Department of Radiology.  He is a Professor of Radiology and Cardiology with the University of British Columbia.  Dr. Leipsic is also a Canada Research Chair in Advanced Cardiopulmonary Imaging. Dr. Leipsic has over 480 peer-reviewed manuscripts in press or in print, over 300 scientific abstracts, and editor of 2 textbooks. He speaks internationally on a number of cardiopulmonary imaging topics with over 150 invited lectures in the last 4 years.

Dr. Kevin Lichtenstein

Dr. Samuel Lichtenstein

Clinical Professor of Surgery, UBC Head, Division of Cardiac Surgery, UBC Regional Cardiac Program Medical Director, PHC & VCH

Dr. Samuel V. Lichtenstein is Clinical Professor of Surgery and University Head of the Division of Cardiac Surgery at the University of British Columbia. In addition to his Medical Degree, Dr. Lichtenstein holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Publications include approximately 1240 peer reviewed articles and invited reviews. Early in his career, he introduced the notion of performing open heart surgery at normothermia which challenged previously held concepts of hypothermia in open heart surgery. In 2005, Dr. Lichtenstein and his group were the first in the world to implant an aortic valve for aortic stenosis through the apex of the left ventricle in man. Catheter-based valve implantation has become a tremendously important development in the treatment of valve disease and the transapical approach allows for treatment of patients with peripheral vascular disease. The group in Vancouver has the largest experience in the world with this modality.

Dr. Lichtenstein has a research interest in myocardial protection, heart-lung interaction, peripheral vascular physiology, and myocardial mechanics.

Dr. Lichtenstein holds multiple patents. In 1998, he developed a suture-based mechanical coronary anastomosis system for Perclose. The patented methodology has been adapted for femoral artery closures after interventional cardiological procedures. In 1999, Dr. Lichtenstein co-founded Ventrica, a biotech start-up in Menlo Park, California, based on a magnetic coupling system for coronary anastomosis. More recently, he co-founded biotech start-ups in Vancouver focused on percutaneous solutions for treating atrial fibrillation, methods of reducing x-ray radiation exposure for long fluoroscopic procedures, and non-invasive lung volume reduction for the treatment of emphysema.

Dr. Christina Luong

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Luong is a clinical assistant professor within the Division of Cardiology at the University of British Columbia and member of the Vancouver General Hospital and University of British Columbia Hospital Echocardiography Laboratory. She specializes in echocardiography with a special interest in stress echo. Her research focuses on the development and application of machine learning models to echocardiography and works closely with UBC computer and biomedical engineering.

She practices general cardiology and provides services for the VGH STAT clinic and inpatient consultation service. Dr. Luong is a graduate of the University of Alberta medical school, and UBC Internal Medicine and Cardiology fellowship programs. She completed advanced fellowships in echocardiography at Vancouver General Hospital and at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She also completed a Master’s of Health Science through the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Michael Luong

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Michael Luong is a UBC clinical assistant professor and a member of the UBC Division of Cardiology. He has privileges at St. Paul’s Hospital, Mount St Joseph’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital. He works at the VGH Cardio-Oncology Clinic and Cardiac Function Clinic and also in the Atrial Fibrillation Clinic at SPH. He received his medical degree from the University of Toronto and completed additional training in advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation at UBC as well as cardio-oncology training at the University of Toronto.

Michael is also actively involved in medical education and is the Associate Director for Undergraduate Medical Education for the UBC Division of Cardiology. He is engaged in teaching medical students, residents and fellows.

Dr. G. B. John Mancini

Professor (tenure)

Dr. G.B. John Mancini is a tenured Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and directs an imaging-based research program (Cardiovascular Imaging Research Core Laboratory, CIRCL) that includes facilities for quantitative coronary angiography, ultrasound analysis (coronaries, carotids and brachial artery for atherosclerosis and endothelial function assessments) and cardiac computed tomography analysis. Dr. Mancini remains in active practice as a staff physician in the Vancouver Hospital Cardiology Outpatient Clinic and the Cardiac Computed Tomography Program as well as the St. Paul’s Hospital Healthy Heart Prevention Program/Lipid Clinic.

Dr. Mancini received his MD degree from the University of Toronto, completed his residency at Toronto General Hospital and was a Cardiology and Research Fellow at the University of California at San Diego. After a year in the rank of Clinical Assistant Professor at U.C. San Diego, he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he became Associate Chief of Cardiology and the Chief of the V.A. Section of Cardiology in 1987. He became Chair of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, 1992-2002. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Governor of the American College of Cardiology (British Columbia) and a member of the Circulation Council of the American Heart Association; he is also a member of numerous other professional associations in the United States and Canada. Dr. Mancini is the Past President of the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation and current President of the Medical/Allied Staff of Vancouver Hospital. He has published over two hundred and fifty journal articles, abstracts, books, and book chapters. He serves as a reviewer for many journals and is currently a member of the editorial boards of the American Journal of Cardiology, the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, and the International Journal of Cardiac Imaging.

Dr. Mancini is currently Coordinating Investigator for the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Core Laboratory for numerous multi-centered trials. His areas of special interest include digital angiography, quantitative coronary angiography, quantitative intravascular ultrasound, quantitative carotid ultrasound, cardiac computed tomography, coronary flow reserve/fractional flow reserve, endothelial dysfunction, primary and secondary CV risk reduction and regression of atherosclerosis.

Dr. John Mayo

Professor (tenure)

Radiology Dept, VGH
Grd Flr JPP, 855 W 12 Ave
Vancouver, BC V5Z1M9

Dr. Ian Macdonald

Clinical Associate Professor Emeritus

Dr. Ian Macdonald is Clinical Associate Professor Emeritus at UBC, member of the Division of Cardiology at St. Paul’s Hospital with some activity at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital. He is a graduate of Queens University, Kingston, Ontario. He was commissioned as Sub Lieutenant in the RCN Reserve. After two years of post-graduate training, he and his wife, Helen (a classmate at Queens) practiced family medicine in Kitimat, B.C. for almost seven years. He then returned to St. Paul’s Hospital, completed training in general Internal Medicine and finished his Cardiology training at the Toronto Western Hospital. He is certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiology with the RCPSC and similarly qualified in the USA. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He works mainly as a General Cardiologist in his office and at St. Paul’s Hospital. He interprets echocardiograms and does in-hospital consultations. He was the Chairman of the St. Paul’s Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee for 25 years. He chaired the St. Paul’s Hospital annual course in Internal Medicine for Family Physicians for 25 years and he is the recipient of the Howard B. Stein Master Teacher Award. His wife Helen is a retired family physician. He has two sons, three grandchildren and another one expected this fall. He is interested in travel, skiing, and saltwater sailing.

Dr. Martha Mackay

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Mackay is a clinician-scientist, combining the roles of Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) in Cardiology at St. Paul’s Heart Centre and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia School of Nursing. Completing her initial nursing education at George Brown College (Toronto), and earning her PhD at UBC, she has practiced for 40 years in critical care and cardiac nursing, with the past 24 as a CNS. Dr. Mackay’s clinical focus is on improving the care of patients with acute coronary syndrome and myocardial infarction. Her expertise and leadership in cardiovascular nursing is recognized nationally and has earned her several awards.

Dr. Mackay currently holds the Canadian Institutes of Health Research “Embedded Clinician Researcher” Award and the UBC School of Nursing “MacMillan Nursing Research Scholar” Award. Her research examines sociodemographic and behavioural influences on cardiac health, such as sex/gender, ethnicity and depression. She serves on several grant review panels, the Executive Committee of Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcomes Sciences (CHEOS), the UBC/Providence Health Care Research Ethics Board, and the Editorial Boards of The Canadian Journal of Critical Care Nursing and the Canadian Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing.

Lisa Mathur

Cardiac Surgery NP at St. Paul’s Hospital

Lisa Mathur is an award winning alumnus of the University of Victoria, earning a Master of Nursing degree in 2008. She has been a nurse practitioner within the St. Paul’s Hospital Cardiac Surgery Program for the past 12 years, and is a member of the Medical Staff at Providence Health Care. She is also an adjunct professor at UBC’s School of Nursing. Prior to embarking on her NP career, she spent many years nursing at several Harvard University affiliated hospitals, including Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. She has ongoing interest in patient and nursing education, improved antithrombotic management following cardiac surgery, and optimization of transition to back to primary care.

Dr. Jimmy McKinney

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. James McKinney MD, FRCP(C) is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Cardiology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. McKinney obtained his degree in medicine from the University of Toronto. He subsequently completed internal medicine and cardiology fellowship at the University of British Columbia. Dr. McKinney then completed subspecialty fellowships in cardiac rehabilitation at the University of Toronto and sports cardiology in Rome, London U.K. and at UBC. At present, he is the director of research at SportsCardiologyBC (www.sportscardiologybc.org). Dr. McKinney’s clinical and research interests focus on: 1) pre-participation screening of young and Masters athletes, 2) improving the safety of exercise in persons with underlying cardiac conditions, 3) studying potential negative cardiac effects of strenuous endurance exercise and 4) to improve treatment strategies in exercising individuals with cardiac conditions.

Lana Moroz

Cardiology NP at Vancouver General Hospital

Lana Moroz is a graduate of the University of British Columbia Master of Science in Nursing / Family Nurse Practitioner degree. She completed her undergraduate degree in nursing with Honors at Douglas College.

Nurse Practitioner in the Atrial Fibrillation Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital since 2018.

Participates in the Quality Assurance and Improvement /Critical Incidence Committee for Nurse Practitioners at Vancouver General Hospital.
Member of Vancouver Coastal Health Medical Staff Editorial Board.

Dr. Robert Moss

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Rob Moss graduated with honors from the University of NSW in Sydney, Australia. He trained and practiced as a general internist and intensivist before training in cardiology at the Prince Charles Hospital, the dedicated cardiovascular hospital for Queensland, Australia. He completed a fellowship in Heart Failure and Transplant and then traveled to Vancouver where he completed a fellowship in Echocardiography. He was recruited to staff at St Paul’s Hospital Vancouver/UBC in 2005. He attends in the CCU in addition to his core duties as a staff echocardiographer. His interests are aortic stenosis, left ventricular diastolic function, pericardial disease, quantification of valvular regurgitation, 3-D imaging and the echo guidance of procedures (especially transcutaneous aortic valve replacement and MitraClip). He is interested in the promotion of quality in imaging. He has published in many of these areas.

Dr. Nathaniel Moulson

Dr. Nathaniel Moulson, MD, FRCPC is a member of the Divisions of Cardiology at Vancouver General Hospital, University of British Columbia Hospital, and St. Paul’s Hospital. He was born and raised in Nelson BC. Dr. Moulson received his undergraduate degree in Kinesiology and Health Science and his medical doctorate from the University of British Columbia. He completed his internal medicine residency at Queen’s University and general cardiology fellowship at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Moulson completed subspecialty fellowships in the Cardiovascular Performance Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, and Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention at the University of British Columbia. He has additionally completed a Clinician Investigator Program residency and currently pursuing a Master of Health Administration. Dr. Moulson is actively involved in clinical and research activities. He focuses his clinical time in the Sports Cardiology clinic at UBC-Hospital, and in cardiac rehabilitation and prevention at both Vancouver General Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital. Dr. Moulson is actively involved as a primary and co-investigator for multiple single and multi-center national and international research studies in the areas of sports cardiology, cardiac rehabilitation and prevention, and virtual health care.

Dr. Brad Munt

Clinical Instructor

Brad Munt was born in Ontario and spent his early years there. He received his undergraduate degree in Biology from Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, attended Medical School at the University of British Columbia, and did his Internal medicine training in Toronto and Vancouver. This was followed by his clinical cardiology training at the University of British Columbia, and a clinical and research echocardiography fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Brad is currently a staff cardiologist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, where his primary role is patient care. His clinical interests are advanced heart failure including transplantation, percutaneous valve therapies, and echocardiography. Brad is involved in clinical echocardiographic research, with valvular heart disease, heart failure, percutaneous valve procedures, and pericardial disease the major focus of his work.

Brad has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications, six echocardiography and 2 percutaneous valve related textbook chapters.

Brad is active in local medical politics as a current Board member and past president of the British Columbia Society of Cardiology and the British Columbia Section of Cardiology of the British Columbia Medical Association.

Brad’s main interests outside of medicine are his 4 children who have given him an excuse to experience a second childhood.

Dr. Darra Murphy

Clinical Associate Professor

Darra T. Murphy, MB BCh BAO, FFR (RSCI), FRCPC is a clinical radiologist based in St Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver with subspecialty training in cardiothoracic and musculoskeletal imaging. Dr. Murphy graduated with a medical degree from University College Dublin in 2002 and performed his basic radiology training in Ireland followed by six months in each of musculoskeletal and interventional radiology in Dublin. He subsequently completed two years of fellowship training at Vancouver General Hospital with one year in each of musculoskeletal and cardiothoracic imaging. He joined St Paul’s Radiology Department in 2013, and on July 1st 2019 was appointed the Department Head for Providence Health Care Radiology. He is an Associate Professor with the University of British Columbia. He has over 50 peer reviewed manuscripts in press or in print and over 25 scientific abstracts. He speaks internationally on a number of Cardiac and Musculoskeletal topics with over 30 invited lectures. He has been a member of the Providence Healthcare Medical Staff Executive Committee (MSEC) of which he is past treasurer.

Dr. Parvathy Nair

Clinical Associate Professor

DHCC, 2775 Laurel St
Level 9, Cardiology
Vancouver, BC V5Z1M9

Dr. Janet Ngu

Cardiovascular Surgeon

Dr. Janet Ngu is an attending cardiac surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) and St. Paul’s Hospital (SPH). She earned her M.D. and M.Sc. in Cardiovascular Sciences from the University of Calgary and went on to complete cardiac surgery residency training at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in 2019. Subsequently, she completed a fellowship at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago with a special focus in complex valve surgeries, heart failure, and mechanical circulatory support. She went on to complete a second fellowship in robotic and minimally invasive cardiac surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. After completing two of the most high-profile fellowships in the United States, Dr. Ngu returned to Canada with her expertise and joined the faculty of UBC in 2021.

Dr. Ngu has a keen interest in supporting the growth of minimally invasive cardiac surgery program. She will be an active participant in the newly established Clinic for Surgical Mitral and Tricuspid Repair. Dr. Ngu will be working in conjunction with cardiology and critical care to develop Shock-Team and ECMO protocols across both VGH and SPH.

Having an aptitude for both translational and clinical research, Dr. Ngu presently has over 20 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. She has received multiple research awards from Cardiothoracic Surgery Societies both in Canada and internationally. Dr. Ngu has an academic interest in the outcomes of surgery for women and is looking forward to revitalizing outcomes research by utilizing the new CVI source platform.

Cindy Nordquist

Cardiology NP at St. Paul’s Hospital

Cynthia (Cindy) Nordquist completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University College of the Cariboo (now known as Thompson Rivers University). She worked in various areas the Heart Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital until completing her Masters in Nursing-Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of British Columbia in 2011.

She is currently the nurse practitioner in the Heart Function Clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital and an adjunct professor at the UBC School of Nursing. She provides full scope nurse practitioner care for complex, vulnerable (substance use and/mental health disorders) and end stage heart failure patients with a focus on chronic disease and symptom management.

Dr. Kevin Ong

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Ong is a clinical assistant professor at UBC and director of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital. He works concurrently in the cardiac intensive care unit and echocardiography lab. Dr. Ong is a graduate of the University of Toronto medical school, and UBC Internal Medicine and Cardiology fellowship programs. He completed advanced fellowships in echocardiography and hypertrophic/amyloid cardiomyopathy at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

Megan Patapoff

Cardiac Surgery NP at St. Paul’s Hospital

Megan Patapoff is an alumnus of the UBC-Okanagan school of nursing, having graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2010. Megan spent nearly ten years working as a registered nurse, primarily in the emergency department, as well as intensive care areas. Megan completed her Master’s in Nursing: Nurse Practitioner through Athabasca University in 2019. Megan is currently a member of Medical Staff under Providence Health Care, and is employed as a Nurse Practitioner on unit 5B, Cardiac Surgery, at St. Paul’s hospital. Megan came to St Paul’s Heart Centre with previous cardiac NP experience, having worked at Abbotsford Regional hospital’s Heart Function Clinic where she provided autonomous care and disease management to heart failure patients in the outpatient setting. Megan is actively involved in clinical committees at Providence Health Care, and is interested in patient care systems improvement initiatives and promotion of nursing education.

Dr. Simon Pimstone

Clinical Assistant Professor in UBC General Internal Medicine

Dr. Joel Price

Dr. Joel Price is a Clinical Assistant Professor and an attending cardiac surgeon at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Price completed his residency in cardiac surgery at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He completed advanced fellowships in complex valve reconstruction at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint – Luc in Brussels, Belgium, and a second in aortic and endovascular surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. He received his Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard University. He began his career as an attending Cardiac Surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Johns Hopkins University. In 2016, he returned to Canada to join the faculty at UBC.

Dr. Price’s clinical interests include valve reconstruction and aortic and endovascular surgery. This includes general aortic surgery, aortic and mitral valve reconstruction, endovascular aortic surgery, and minimally invasive and transcatheter valve therapies. Dr. Price has a special interest in the repair of bicuspid aortic valve, including aortic valve-sparing root replacement and leaflet repair.

With a background in epidemiology, Dr. Price focuses his research on outcomes in aortic and valvular heart surgery, clinical trials and simulation in surgical education. He is a co-author on over 50 peer-reviewed publications and is the recipient of numerous research and teaching awards.

Dr. Alan Rabinowitz

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Alan Rabinowitz received his medical degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, completed his internal medicine and cardiology training at the University of Toronto and underwent subsequent training in interventional cardiology at St Paul’s Hospital. He is currently Clinical Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiology at the University of British Columbia.

In his prior capacity as Director of the Coronary Care Unit at St Paul’s Hospital, Dr. Rabinowitz recognized the critical importance of disruptive data solutions in transforming healthcare to enhance patient care, research and innovation, and advance sustainability of the healthcare ecosystem.  This drove him to co-found PHEMI, a health solutions company focusing on clinical and research productivity and outcome improvement, and medical knowledge collaboration using Big Data and data science.

He has recently taken on an advisory role in the New St Paul’s Hospital development project focused on the intersect between clinical medicine, research and innovation using data innovation including opportunities for global collaboration as well as an advisory role in the Canadian Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada on clinical innovation and implementation science.

Dr. Rabinowitz currently chairs the cardiovascular clinical rounds forum at St Paul’s Hospital. His areas of interest include cardiac intensive care, general and preventive cardiology and data innovation in the context of systems biology and implementation science.

Dr. Simon Rabkin

Professor (tenure)

Active in cardiology research and patient care. Dr. Rabkin has published over 250 scientific papers or book chapters. His fields of interest include the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease including hypertension, aortic diseases, electrocardiography, and others. He has received a number of recent awards for his contributions to medicine.

Dr. Krish Ramanathan

Clinical Professor

Dr. Krishnan Ramanathan Graduated from the University of Otago Medical School, in Dunedin, New Zealand. He completed his training in Cardiology at Green-Lane Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand before traveling to North America where he gained experience in Interventional cardiologist and clinical research. He returned to Vancouver in 2006 with appointments’ at both St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital. He is currently the Medical Director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) at St. Paul’s Hospital as well as being a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia.

Since coming to British Columbia he has been active in research to better understand the complex interplay between coronary artery disease (CAD), Diabetes mellitus and or reno-vascular disease through international multi-center clinical trials and local research. He is also a leader in ethnicity research trying to understand the determinants for the increased incidence of atherosclerosis amongst South Asians. His experience in clinical trials consists of membership in many Steering / Operations Committees, Data, and Safety Monitoring Boards and Writings Committees. He was the inaugural recipient of the St Paul’s Hospital Foundation Physicians Scholars Award and a co-applicant on a number of national grants.

His publications are numerous and he is actively involved in all levels of education ranging from medical students to organizing continuing medical education for physicians. He has been involved with provincial guideline development for Chest pain management and Atrial fibrillation. He is a co-chair of the regional STEMI management committee and the co-chair of the provincial ACS registry.

Dr. Jeff Reading

Professor and Chair First Nations Health Authority Heart Health

Professor Jeffrey Reading has more than two decades of experience enhancing knowledge in Indigenous health issues, both in Canada and globally. He obtained his Bachelor of Physical Education (1983) at the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta, Master of Science (1991) and Doctor of Philosophy (1994) in Community Health Sciences, (now the Dalla Lana Faculty of Public Health), University of Toronto and was the founding Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Health Research at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

As the inaugural Scientific Director of the Institute of Aboriginal Peoples’ Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research from 2000 to 2008, Jeff led a movement calling for a national advanced research agenda in the area of Aboriginal peoples health and led the CIHR cross-cutting initiative in rural and northern health research.

Jeff held the first endowed research chair at the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto. Jeff’s broad interests in research in Public Health has brought attention to issues including but not limited to: the social determinants of health, environmental issues including provision of safe potable water, health promotion and disease prevention, heart health, diabetes, tobacco misuse and accessibility to health care among Aboriginal Canadians.

Jeff has played a pivotal role in the introduction of Canadian ethics guidelines for Aboriginal health research. He also made key contributions to the Canadian Academy of Health Science’s report and solutions that aim to have a particular impact on Indigenous Peoples’ health globally.

From August 2012 to July 2013, Jeff took a one-year leave of absence from the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria to join the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, based in Alice Springs and Melbourne Australia, to lead the Institute in the emerging field of Global Indigenous Health.

In 2015, Jeff led the Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health (WBIIH) as the inaugural Interim Director of the WBIIH that was created with a generous gift of $10 million from Drs. Michael and Amira Dan and is based at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. In 2016, Jeff was appointed the Inaugural British Columbia First Nations Health Authority Chair in Heart Health and Wellness at St. Paul’s Hospital based at Simon Fraser University.

Among his numerous distinctions, Dr. Reading received the C.P. Shah Alumni Award of Excellence in Public Health from the Public Health Alumni Association of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto in 2015. He also received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, Canada – now known as Indspire in 2008 – and Jeff was honored to be elected an inaugural Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2005. In 2002, Dr. Reading delivered the prestigious Fourth Annual Amyot lecture at Health Canada, “Global Indigenous Health Research: An Opportunity for Canadian Leadership”.

Dr. Thomas Roston

Dr. Thomas Roston is a cardiologist and clinician-scientist at St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital. He received an MD from the University of British Columbia, followed by residencies in Internal Medicine and Cardiology, during which time he twice served as chief resident. He also obtained a PhD from the University of Alberta focused on inherited heart disease, and completed the UBC Clinician Investigator Program. He has additional fellowship training from Harvard Medical School in Cardiovascular Genetics, and from the University of Alberta in Cardiac Critical Care. Dr. Roston’s research is focused on cardiac genetics, heart disease in the young, and critical care cardiology.

Dr. Gnalini Sathananthan

Dr. Gnalini Sathananthan (BSc (Med) MBBS, FRACP, MPhil) graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Medicine), Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia). She completed her cardiology training through Westmead Hospital (Sydney, Australia) and the Greenlane Cardiology Program (Auckland, New Zealand). She is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. She underwent further fellowship training in both echocardiography and adult congenital heart disease at Auckland City Hospital (New Zealand), Toronto General Hospital (Canada) and at St Paul’s Hospital (Vancouver, Canada). Her clinical interests include echocardiography and adult congenital heart disease with a specific interest in structural echocardiography and heritable aortopathy. She has completed a Master of Philosophy through the University of Sydney and retains a keen interest in cardiology research. She has also been involved in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.

Dr. Janarthanan Sathananthan

Dr Janarthanan (Janar) Sathananthan is an interventional cardiologist at St. Paul’s and Vancouver General Hospital. Janar graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) from the University of Auckland (Distinction) and completed cardiology training through the Greenlane Cardiology Program in Auckland, New Zealand and is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. During his cardiology training he also completed a Masters of Public Health (MPH) focusing on research methodology. He completed four years of subspecialty training in interventional cardiology which included 1 year at Greenlane Cardiology (Auckland, New Zealand), 1 year at Toronto General Hospital (Toronto) focussing on complex coronary intervention, and a further two years at the Centre for Heart Valve Innovation (Vancouver) focussing on structural heart interventions. His clinical interests include both coronary and structural intervention. He is active in both pre-clinical and clinical research with a focus on structural heart disease. Pre-clinical interests focus on bench testing of cardiovascular devices, and he is Director of the Centre for Heart Valve Innovation Bench Testing Laboratory. He is a Canadian representative for the International Standards Organization (ISO), an advisory body for the testing of cardiovascular devices.

Dr. Jacqueline Saw

Clinical Professor

Dr. Jacqueline Saw is an Interventional Cardiologist at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) with a joint appointment at St Paul’s Hospital. She is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, and Program Director of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Program at VGH. She also served as the Head of VGH Cardiology Clinical Trials Research. She is an active clinician, researcher and educator.

She was awarded Canada Scholar and the Dean’s Entrance Scholarship for Natural Sciences at Simon Fraser University for her undergraduate degree. She obtained her medical doctorate at the University of Ottawa, graduating summa cum laude. She completed her Internal Medicine and Cardiology residencies at the University of British Columbia, and served as chief cardiology fellow. She then completed her Interventional Cardiology fellowship training at Cleveland Clinic Foundation, which encompassed carotid, peripheral and structural training. She has been an active staff with the Division of Cardiology at VGH and St Paul’s Hospital since 2004. She is also a physician proctor for left atrial appendage (LAA) closure with the Amplatzer Cardiac Plug/Amulet and WATCHMAN devices globally.

Dr. Saw is a pioneer and leader in research and management of spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) (http://scad.ubc.ca), and is the principal investigator of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funded multi-center prospective Canadian SCAD Study. Her other research interests include LAA closure, non-atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (including coronary fibromuscular dysplasia), antiplatelet therapy, percutaneous coronary intervention, carotid artery stenting, peripheral arterial disease and intervention. She is also the principal investigator of PRYME, NACAD, SAFER-SCAD, Canadian WATCHMAN Registry, TAP-CABG, and ELAPSE studies. She has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including scientific research studies, review articles and book chapters. She is also the editor of three textbooks on carotid artery stenting and LAA closure.

Dr. Tara Sedlak

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Tara Sedlak grew up in Kelowna, British Columbia, receiving her Bachelor’s degree with Honours from the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta) and her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, British Columbia). Dr. Tara Sedlak was awarded the Gold Medal for a top graduate from the Doctor of Medicine Program. She completed two specialist residencies (Internal Medicine and Cardiology) at the University of British Columbia, where she twice served as Chief Medical Resident. Dr. Tara Sedlak also completed a fellowship at Cedar Sinai Medical Centre (Los Angeles, California) with Dr. Bairey Merz, the world’s leading expert in women’s heart health. Dr. Tara Sedlak is the only Canadian physician to have completed this program. Dr. Tara Sedlak practices General Cardiology for men and women. She is also the only certified Women’s Heart Health Cardiologist in Canada.

Dr. Peter Skarsgard

Dr. Slawnych

Dr. Slawnych initially trained as an electrical engineer at the University of Alberta and the University of British Columbia (UBC), and then did a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Anatomy at UBC. He subsequently went on to be a junior faculty member with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at McGill University, and then studied medicine at the University of Calgary, completing residencies in internal medicine, cardiology and palliative care. He currently works in both cardiology and palliative care and has a special interest in cardiac patients near the end of life.

Dr. Lynn Straatman

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Carolyn Taylor

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Carolyn M Taylor, MD, MPH is a clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia and a member of the Divisions of Cardiology at St Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital. With fellowship training in Cardiac Disease Prevention (Harvard University) and Coronary CT Angiography (Massachusett’s General Hospital), Dr. Taylor is actively involved in clinical and research activities in these fields. Dr. Taylor focuses her clinical time in the Healthy Heart cardiac rehabilitation program at St Paul’s and Vancouver General Hospital and in the Prevention/Lipid Clinic at St Paul’s Hospital. Additionally, Dr. Taylor works in the advanced cardiac imaging department and the cardiac intensive care unit at St Paul’s Hospital. Prior research training includes a Masters of Public Health (2008) from Harvard University and completion of the UBC Clinical Investigator’s Program (2009). She is currently involved as a primary and co-investigator of numerous single center and multi-center research studies in the areas of non-invasive imaging, cardiac prevention, and risk factor modification. Dr. Taylor is the recent recipient of the St Paul’s Hospital Physician Scholar Award (2011-2014).

Dr. Christopher Thompson

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Thompson is a Clinical Associate Professor, Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia (UBC) and an Attending Cardiologist at St. Paul’s Hospital, where he was also the Director of the Cardiac Echo Laboratory from its inception in 1986 to 2010 and the Director of Cardiology Research from 1994 to 2001. He served as a Medical Advisor to Cardiac Services BC from 2008 to 2013.

Dr. Thompson received his Internal Medicine and Cardiology training at St. Paul’s Hospital (UBC) and his Cardiology Research training and Echocardiography Fellowship at Foothills Hospital, University of Calgary working with Drs. Eldon Smith and John Tyberg. His current research interests focus on multimodality imaging to support structural heart disease intervention and utilizing cardiac registries to improve cardiovascular outcomes. Dr. Thompson is a reviewer for many cardiology journals and belonged to the scientific review committee of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC and the Yukon. He directed a cooperative cardiology clinical trials group at St. Paul’s Hospital that evaluated emerging therapies, therapeutic strategies and devices in cardiac patients. He currently serves as the Chief Scientific Officer of PHEMI Health Systems, a Vancouver process automation and analytics company that unlocks patient data to improve clinic productivity, patient outcomes, and medical research.

Dr. Mustafa Toma

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Toma graduated from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 2003 and completed training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He received subspecialty training in Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation at the Cleveland Clinic before completing a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. His clinical interests include advanced heart failure, cardiac transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, and cardiac critical care.

Dr. Michael Tsang

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Michael Tsang is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Cardiology at the University of British Columbia. He completed his MD and residency training at the University of British Columbia, and advanced echocardiography and research training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His clinical expertise and research interests include the use of echocardiography for assessing valvular heart disease and the application of echocardiographic strain imaging in the evaluation of myocardial dysfunction.

Dr. Teresa Tsang

Professor (Tenure)

Dr. Tsang is a Professor in the Division of Cardiology. She came to UBC in October 2009 from the Mayo Clinic and specializes in echocardiography and clinical epidemiology. She is internationally recognized for her research in atrial fibrillation, echocardiographic prediction, and prevention of first atrial fibrillation, heart failure, and stroke; atrial remodeling and reversal; and diastolic dysfunction.

Dr. Tsang has been Associate Head Research in the Department of Medicine since 2011. She is on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Society of Echocardiography. She is the Director of Echo Lab for VGH and UBC. She is a CIHR-NSERC funded investigator.

Dr. Ricky Turgeon

Assistant Professor

Dr. Ricky Turgeon is Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in the PHARM-HF (Pharmacist-Led Rapid Medication Optimization for Heart Failure) Clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, holding the Greg Moore Professorship in Clinical & Community Cardiovascular Pharmacy, and an Associate Member of the UBC Faculty of Medicine, member of the Division of Cardiology at St. Paul’s Hospital, and Scientist at the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHÉOS). Dr. Ricky Turgeon received his BSc(Pharm) from the Dalhousie University College of Pharmacy, his Accredited Canadian Pharmacy Residency (ACPR) from the Lower Mainland Pharmacy Services Residency Program, his post-baccalaureate PharmD in the UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC, and a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in cardiovascular pharmacotherapeutics at the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry (Division of Cardiology).

Dr. Turgeon’s research focuses on integrating high-quality observational studies and meta-analyses of clinical studies to guide the creation and evaluation of decision support tools and other knowledge translation strategies to ensure that pharmacotherapy for cardiovascular disease align with patient goals, preferences and values. His research and clinical interests focus on implementation science, with a focus on heart failure pharmacotherapy, antithrombotic agents, lipid-lowering therapies, and on the cardiovascular safety of medications. Dr. Turgeon has authored over 65 peer-reviewed publications, predominantly in cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. He serves on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology Open.

Dr. Tony Ankush Verma

Clinical Instructor

Dr. Sean Virani

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Virani is the Head of Cardiology at Providence Health Care and Physician Program Director for the Provincial Heart Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital.

A key opinion leader for heart failure in Canada, Dr. Virani is the Heart Failure Physician Lead and Senior Medical Advisor at Cardiac Services BC, Past-President and Chair of the Canadian Heart Failure Society as well as Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia.

He completed his internal medicine and cardiology training at UBC before embarking on a sub-specialization in heart failure and cardiac transplantation at Stanford University. He also has a Master’s degree in Public Health from Columbia University with a focus on healthcare management. His professional interests include public policy related to health care delivery with specific reference to healthcare systems redesign and quality in the Canadian context.

Dr. Virani has authored a number of papers on chronic and acute decompensated heart failure and is a principal investigator on numerous research trials with extensive grant funding.

He is Co-Chair of the Canadian Cardio-Oncology Guidelines and is a primary panelist on the Canadian Heart Failure Guidelines. He is Co-Chair of the Provincial Advisory Panel on Cardiac Health and past Co-Chair of British Columbia’s Specialist Services Committee – a collaboration between the Doctors of BC and BC’s Ministry of Health. He also serves as Medical Director for HeartLife Foundation, Canada’s first and only patient-led national heart failure organization.

Dr. Darryl Wan

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Darryl Wan, MD, FRCPC, RPVI is a general cardiologist and a member of the Division of Cardiology at St. Paul’s Hospital, Mount St. Joseph Hospital, and Vancouver General Hospital. He completed medical school, Internal Medicine residency, and Cardiology fellowship at the University of British Columbia. He then completed a Vascular Medicine fellowship in McMaster University, where he also certified as a Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation. His clinical interests are in general cardiology, peripheral vascular disease and cardiovascular prevention.

Dr. John Webb

Professor (grant tenure)

Rm 476 Burrard Bldg
1081 Burrard St
Vancouver, BC V6Z1Y6

Dr. Webb is the director of interventional cardiology at St. Paul’s Hospital, McLeod Professor at UBC, Medical Director of the Transcatheter Valve Program for the Province of BC. 

As director of the Centre for Heart Valve Innovation, he leads the group that developed the most widely used transcatheter aortic valve implantation procedures as well as many other first-in-human devices and procedures. He has performed or supervised over 3,000 aortic, mitral, pulmonary, and tricuspid valve procedures in over 30 countries throughout North America, Europe, and Australasia and has authored over 500 publications.

Dr. Graham Wong

Clinical Professor

Dr. Wong graduated from medical school at UBC. He completed his internal medicine residency at UBC and subsequently completed his fellowship training in cardiology at McGill University. He then pursued a 2-year research fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital with the TIMI Group and completed his MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is also board certified by the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.

He is the Program Director for the UBC Adult Cardiology Residency Training Program, the Associate Director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Vancouver General Hospital, the Medical Director of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCHA) Regional STEMI Program and the Regional Physician Lead for Acute Cardiac Care for VCHA. He is a sitting member of the AHA Acute Care Cardiology Committee and is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at UBC.

Dr. Wong has won a number of major teaching awards including the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Distinguished Teacher Award, UBC Clinical Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, the VGH Bobby Miller Teaching Prize, the UBC Department of Medicine Master Teacher Award and the UBC Killam Teaching Prize.

Dr. Wong was the Co-chair for both the 2019 CCS/CAIC Guideline on the Management of ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) and the 2017 CCS/CANCARE/CAIC Position Statement on the Optimal Care of the Post Arrest Patient. He was also a member of the Primary Author Panel for the 2013 and 2018 CCS Guidelines on Antiplatelet Therapy and is a member of the Primary Author Panel for the 2020 CCS/Canadian Neurocritical Care Society Position Statement on Neuroprognostication following Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

Dr. David Wood

Clinical Professor

Dr. David Wood is a Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He is the Head of the Division of Cardiology and the Medical Director for the Cardiac Sciences Program at Vancouver Coastal Health. He is the inaugural Director of the Centre for Cardiovascular Innovation – Centre d’Innovation Cardiovasculaire (CCI-CIC), a clinical research operation centre with 39 affiliated staff and 72 cardiovascular investigators in British Columbia. Dr. Wood is the President of the Canadian Association of Interventional Cardiology (CAIC-ACCI). He received the Luminary Award at the recent C3 Global Submit. He is the Course Director of the CAIC-ACCI Summit, an open Canadian forum to discuss controversies in complex coronary and structural heart disease interventions.

Dr. Wood works as a structural and interventional cardiologist at St. Paul’s and Vancouver General Hospital. He obtained subspecialty training at Lenox Hill Heart and Vascular Institute of New York. His primary research interests include transcatheter management of structural and valvular heart disease, new device development, novel strategies for treating ACS, and advanced cardiac imaging. Dr. Wood has participated in over 50 live-cases and 20 first-in-human cases. He has co-authored over 200 publications with an h-index of 74. He recently published the 3M TAVR Study (JACC CVI), the SAFE MANTA Study (Circ CVI), and was co-principal investigator of the CIHR funded COMPLETE trial (4,041 patients, 140 centres, 31 countries) that was presented as Late Breaking Science at both ESC and TCT with simultaneous publication in NEJM and JACC. He is currently PI of the COMPLETE TAVR trial (n = 4000, 103 centres), the DISCORDANCE TAVR study (n = 50, 11 centres), the ULTRA CLOSURE study (n = 250, 7 centres), and the PROTECT TAVR study (n = 200, 15 centres). In May 2020, in collaboration with 15 North American Cardiovascular Society Leaders representing over 90,000 clinicians, he simultaneously published Safe Reintroduction of Cardiovascular Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic in JACC, CJC, and the ATS.

Office Contact Information:

Office Phone: 604-875-5601

Fax Number: 604-674-0981

Dr. Jian (James) Ye

Director, Cardiac Surgery Clinical Research, UBC Clinical Professor of Surgery, UBC

Dr. Jian (James) Ye is a cardiovascular surgeon at St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital. He is also a Clinical Professor of Surgery and the Director of Cardiac Surgery Research at the University of British Columbia. His primary clinical interest/expertise is complex mitral & tricuspid valve repair, rheumatic mitral & tricuspid valve repair, complex cardiac surgery, and transcatheter heart valve therapies. Dr. Ye is a pioneer in the development and clinical application of transcatheter heart valve therapies, including transapical aortic valve implantation (TAVI), transcatheter mitral valve replacement or repair and transcatheter tricuspid valve therapy. He has performed many first-in-human transcatheter heart valve procedures, including: the first successful transapical TAVI in the world in 2005; transcatheter aortic valve-in-valve implantation for failed bioprosthesis in 2007; TAVI for pure aortic regurgitation; and transcatheter mitral valve repair or replacement. He has educated physicians around the world in TAVI and has supervised many transcatheter aortic and mitral valve procedures throughout North America, Asia and Australia. He has also educated surgeons in different countries in heart valve surgery. His research interests include clinical outcomes of traditional and transcatheter heart valve surgery, and the development and clinical application of new medical devices. As Director of Cardiac Surgery Research, he has served as the site principal investigator for many clinical trials in cardiac surgery and transcatheter heart valve therapies. He has over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications and 6 book chapters, and has been an invited lecturer at numerous scientific meetings and hospitals worldwide.

Dr. Darwin Yeung

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Yeung received his medical degree from the University of Toronto followed by residency training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the University of British Columbia. He completed advanced fellowships in echocardiography at Vancouver General Hospital and at the Mayo Clinic, and is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health degree at the Harvard School of Public Health. He will be joining the VGH/UBC Echo Lab and providing specialized care for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, cardiac amyloidosis, and Fabry cardiomyopathy. His current research focuses on the application of strain imaging in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease.

Dr. John Yeung

Clinical Professor

Dr. John Yeung-Lai-Wah graduated in Medicine from the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He completed his Cardiology training at the University of Alberta and his Fellowship training in Cardiac Electrophysiology at the University of Oklahoma under Dr. W. Jackman. In 1986, he was the recipient of the third prize at the Young Investigator Award of the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology (NASPE), now the Heart Rhythm Society. Shortly after, he joined the Faculty of Medicine at UBC. His main research focus has been on the mechanisms of arrhythmias in humans and he has done pioneering work in ablation therapy. In 1992, his Fellow trainee also received an award at the Young Investigator competition at NASPE.
His cardiology practice centers on the management of heart rhythm abnormalities.

Patti Yip

Cardiac Surgery NP at Vancouver General Hospital