RESEARCH OVERVIEW | Heart & Stroke/Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence

HSRLCE’s Investments in Research:

Young Investigators:

The HSRLCE in partnership with the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the Boehringer Ingelheim and EI Lilly Alliance founded the “CCS/HSRLCE/BI-Lilly-Cardiometabolic Research Award” in 2018. The goal of the program is to fund innovative ground-breaking clinical research projects in cardiometabolic disease, specifically the link between cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Eligible applicants are Canadian clinical residents (PGY 4-6), and MDs or PhDs who were within the first five years of their first faculty appointment at a Canadian academic institution. Prizes start at $20,000. To-date, 10 young investigators have been supported (for a total of $205,000).

Read more about this grant.

Sports Cardiology:

Sports Cardiology Toronto (SCT) is a recent development of the HSRLCE, launched in 2019 thanks to a fund-raising initiative that enabled its development support of several research projects. Its mission is to “Promote safe, healthful exercise for athletes at risk of, or diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, informed by a world-class multidisciplinary research team, and through a program of research, education, advocacy and the provision of clinical care and consultation, delivered by leading experts in sports cardiology and exercise physiology”.

A distinguishing feature of Sports Cardiology Toronto is the provision of a unified, fully integrated, and cross-disciplinary program of research, advocacy, consultation, education, and clinical care, all coordinated from within the HSRLCE and leveraging facilities across the University of Toronto landscape. The founding members of SCT are Drs. Jack Goodman (Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education), Kim Connelly (St. Michael’s Hospital) and Paul Dorian (St. Michael’s Hospital) and our team includes Drs. Susanna Mak and Andrew Yan, and a growing list of collaborators beyond the University of Toronto landscape.

The clinical care facility will become operational by the Spring of 2022 and the SCT is already attracting referrals in need of unique expertise by sports cardiology experts.

Click here to visit the SCT website.

Innovation – CICI:

Established in February 2021, The Canada-Israel Cardiovascular Innovation Forum (CICI) aim to:

Encourage early-stage cardiovascular innovations in medical devices and digital health in Canada and Israel
Establish collaboration between Israel and Canada in developing and funding cardiovascular innovations through competitions
Grow a network of interested investors and provide a vehicle for joint funding of promising early-stage projects and companies
Provide young innovators an education experience in early-stage company development

Read more about the CICI.

Innovation – Michael R. Freeman Innovation Award:

The HSRLCE in collaboration with the academic/teaching hospitals from the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network (i.e. Hospital for Sick Children, St. Michael’s Hospital, Sinai Health Systems, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the Women’s College Hospital, the University Health Network and University of Toronto’s Translational Biology and Engineering Program) founded the Cardiac and Vascular Collaborative Innovation Competition in 2017 – later renamed the Michael R. Freeman award.

The goal of the program is to spur innovation and collaboration between institutes with the aim of improving quality of care within cardiac and vascular programs. The purpose of the award is to provide seed funding for novel ideas aimed at cardiovascular disease management, emphasizing collaborative research and development at multiple sites within the TCLHIN.