At the Faculty of Medicine, our researchers are at the forefront of discoveries in heart health—exploring innovative treatments, prevention strategies, and ways to improve patient outcomes. From life-saving interventions to cutting-edge cardiac research, we’re working toward a future where everyone has a healthier heart.

This month, we celebrate the power of research in transforming lives and recognize the donors and partners who make this work possible. 

Learn more about the exciting cardiac research at Dal: 

• AI, radiation therapy promise new treatments for cardiac patients
• Cardiovascular risks and COVID‑19: New research confirms the benefits of vaccination
• Federal government invests $34.4M in Dal research to unlock innovation in clean tech, heart health, ocean science and more

The Critical Cardiac Challenge

Every Canadian has been touched by heart disease, one of the most prevalent health-care issues in the country. If it doesn’t affect us personally, we know how it has affected a friend or family member. Heart disease is the second-leading cause of death in Canada, after cancer, and the leading cause of premature death in women.

Every year, 60,000 people suffer cardiac arrests outside of hospital— and only one in 10 people survive those events.

Some of the highest levels of heart disease in Canada occur right here in the Maritimes. Our aging population, levels of physical inactivity, and high poverty rates all contribute to this burden of illness.

The economic consequences of cardiac disease are also crippling, at an estimated $22 billion in health-care costs per year. The good news is that as we get better at preventing and treating heart disease, our death rate is decreasing. In the last two decades, deaths from cardiac causes have declined by more than 20 per cent. Medical research that improves treatments is at the heart of that success.

Even as we’ve increased our knowledge about heart disease, we’re learning more about the challenges we still must tackle. For example, researchers have recently identified a new kind of heart failure women are more prone to developing than men. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) involves multiple organs and has a dismal five-year survival rate. 

As those who live with cardiac disease can attest, there are crucial cardiac therapies to discover—and that’s where Dalhousie’s medical researchers excel.

Dalhousie’s Powerhouse Cardiac Research Team - CREW

Dalhousie has a unique group of world class cardiac researchers and clinical scientists in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick known as the Cardiac Research Excellence Wave (DalCREW). Members of the multidisciplinary CREW team lead groundbreaking investigations into causes of cardiac disease, and pioneer new treatment approaches.

Many of our researchers are recognized as Canadian leaders in their areas of expertise, such as Dr. John Sapp and Dr. Ratika Parkash in atrial fibrillation, and Dr. Susan Howlett in aging and frailty.

These trailblazing cardiac surgeons, cardiologists, pharmacologists, and other scientists work together along the research pipeline, from discovery science to clinical trials. Their goal is to improve the health of the most vulnerable people at risk of cardiac disease, including pregnant women, babies, older adults, and those with obesity and diabetes.

The researchers are learning how age affects men’s and women’s hearts differently, developing new ways to protect the heart during surgery, exploring prevention and treatment approaches, and validating potential targets for new drugs.

They are honing their skills so they can provide the best heart-disease care to people of all ages.

To help their work, our researchers draw from the only cardiac biobank in Atlantic Canada, the IMPARTBiobank at the Faculty of Medicine in Saint John on Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick’s campus. Dr. Petra Kienesberger, Dr. Keith Brunt and colleagues established the biobank to store human heart samples, serum, plasma and whole blood and cells from volunteers undergoing heart surgery and donors, as well as clinical records associated with the samples. These tissue and blood samples and the case histories enable clinical trials and facilitate the cutting-edge clinical trial and discovery research our scientists conduct to improve treatments and design strategies for better cardiac care.

Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick is also home to the IMPART team – a group of clinicians, scientists, and researchers studying cardiovascular disease, with collaborators worldwide. This team is discovering ways to improve health outcomes for Canadians every day.

Our researchers’ close ties with the Nova Scotia Health Authority, and with New Brunswick’s Vitalité Health Network and Horizon Health Network, ensure cardiac patients benefit from their ground-breaking discoveries right away.