Grant: Foundation Grant

Ambulatory Care; Big Data; Cardiovascular Disease; Cardiovascular Risk Factors; Heart Failure; Large Databases; Myocardial Infarction; Outcomes Research; Quality Indicators; Stroke

<html> <body> <p>My research career has been, and continues to be, devoted to measuring and improving the quality of cardiovascular (CV) care in Canada. Initially I focused on the hospital setting as the team leader of the CIHR-funded Canadian Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Team (www.ccort.ca) from 2001-2011 and more recently, on the ambulatory care setting as the team leader of the Cardiovascular Health in Ambulatory Care Research Team (CANHEART; www.canheart.ca) (2012 to present). As a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research and CV Research Program Leader at ICES, the Sunnybrook Research Institute, and Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto (UofT), the overall goals of my research program for the next 7 years include:<br> <br> 1) Building the CANHEART database of 9.8 million Ontario adults into one of the world&rsquo;s largest cardiovascular &lsquo;big data&rsquo; research platforms. The CANHEART cohort integrates information from multiple electronic sources (e.g. survey, physician claims, labs, imaging, drugs, hospitalizations) into one database.</p> <p>2) Utilizing the extensive information being assembled in the CANHEART database to develop clinical prediction rules and mobile apps to accurately predict CV risk and optimize the clinical care provided to Ontario&rsquo;s diverse multiethnic population.</p> <p>3) Measuring and improving the quality of CV-related preventive care provided to recent immigrants, females and other vulnerable populations in Ontario.</p> <p>4) Knowledge translation and exchange: Using the CANHEART database to create a &lsquo;learning health care system.&rsquo;</p> <p>5) Publishing a minimum of 140 peer-reviewed papers in high-impact medical journals.</p> <p>6) Recruiting and training a minimum of 20 new trainees in the field of CV outcomes research.</p> <p>7) Working with key stakeholders and knowledge users, including government (e.g. Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care [MOHLTC], Health Quality Ontario [HQO]) and non-governmental agencies (e.g. Heart and Stroke Foundation [HSF]), clinicians, and patients/families to achieve HSF&rsquo;s goal of reducing CV death rates in Canada by 25% by 2020.<br> <br>In this Foundation grant, I will lead an integrated program of novel research, building upon the CANHEART I initiative, and work with an outstanding multidisciplinary team of CANHEART-affiliated scientists. The team includes program experts in cardiology, family medicine, statistics, outcomes research, clinical epidemiology, and knowledge users from the organizations listed above.<br> <br>In the CANHEART II initiative, I will expand and enrich the CANHEART &lsquo;big data&rsquo; cohort by adding new information from the Ontario Laboratory Information System, Electronic Medical Record Administrative-data Linked Database (EMRALD), Ontario Health Study, Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds study and other rich, novel data sources to create unprecedented opportunities for large, ongoing population-based studies in Canada.<br> <br>I will train a new generation of researchers in Canada in the growing field of &lsquo;big data&rsquo; by providing opportunities to work with our increasingly large and deep databases comprising thousands of variables and millions of records. Trainees will be encouraged to undertake rigorous quantitative training via graduate programs at the UofT and other universities, and present their work at major Canadian/international research meetings. They will also be encouraged to attend, participate in, and learn from CANHEART&rsquo;s team and working group research meetings.</p> </body> </html>