University of Ottawa Heart Institute 4.28

The University of Ottawa Heart Institute is Canada's largest cardiovascular health centre. It is located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It began as a department in The Ottawa Hospital, and since has evolved into Canada's only complete cardiac centre, encompassing prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, research, and education.UOHI cares for more than 100,000 cardiac patients each year, and patient satisfaction is among the highest in Ontario, averaging 98 percent. The Heart Institute is affiliated with the Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa.The institute also provides training to more than 100 physicians annually and runs an extensive cardiovascular research program, with 60 principal investigators and research funding of approximately $65 million a year.HistoryUOHI was founded in 1976 by Dr. Wilbert J. Keon, with financial support from the Ontario Ministry of Education. Keon worked with numerous partners, including all of the hospitals in the region, the University of Ottawa, and the Ottawa Hospital Regional District Planning council, to ensure the vision of a world-renowned institute would unfold as planned. The first phase of the Heart Institute—the Cardiac Unit, as it was then known—officially opened on May 11, 1976.UOHI is now the sole, independent provider of specialized cardiovascular care for the Champlain Local Health Integration Network, home to over 1 million people (9 percent of the population of Ontario), and serves more than 40 referral hospitals throughout the province.In 2004, UOHI recruited Dr. Robert Roberts from Baylor College of Medicine to serve as President and Chief Executive Officer. Roberts, an internationally recognized investigator in the field of molecular genetics, was brought in to place a greater emphasis on research within the institute. Shortly afterwards, UOHI established the Ruddy Canadian Cardiovascular Genetics Centre, the first such centre in Canada and one of only a handful worldwide dedicated to cardiovascular genetics.