Salim Yusuf, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, and Executive Director of the Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University and Chief Scientist, Hamilton Health Sciences.
Salim Yusuf is an internationally renowned cardiologist and epidemiologist, whose work over 40 years has substantially influenced prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Medically qualified in Bangalore 1976, he received a Rhodes Scholarship and obtained a DPhil from Oxford, during which he (along with Richard Peto, Rory Collins and Peter Sleight) initiated the concepts of large, simple trials, and meta-analysis. He coordinated the first ISIS trial (which set the structure for future international collaborative work in cardiovascular disease) that demonstrated the value of beta-blockers in myocardial infarction, and was a member of steering committees for all subsequent ISIS trials.
In 1984, following clinical training in medicine and cardiology in the UK, he moved to the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA, where he was a leader in their SOLVD trial (establishing the value of ACE-inhibitors on LV dysfunction) and DIG trial (clarifying the role of digitalis).
In 1992 he moved to McMaster University, where he has established an international program of research in cardiovascular diseases and prevention, culminating in the creation of the Population Health Research Institute, which he founded and heads. His therapeutic trials have established the roles of ACE-inhibitors in CVD prevention, dual antiplatelet therapies in acute coronary syndromes, and the roles of novel antithrombotics and invasive interventions. The PHRI was recently cited by SCImago as possessing the highest impact of Canadian Centers and the 7th highest impact in the world.
His epidemiologic work in over 100 countries in all the inhabited continents of the world shows the majority of risks of both cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease are attributable to the same few risk factors. He currently leads the largest ever study revealing the role of societal changes in CVD among 200,000 people from over 100 communities in 27 high, middle and low income countries. These studies have led to better understanding of the role of societal changes on behaviours and risk factors, and how they lead to CVD.
Over the last 3 decades he has built capacity for clinical and population research across Canada and the world by establishing research networks at over 1500 sites in 101 countries, spanning all inhabited continents of the world. He has trained over 100 researchers, many of whom are nationally or internationally renowned leaders in medical research. He has helped develop major research institutes or programs in Canada, India, Argentina, Brazil, S. Africa, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and China.
He holds a Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario Research Chair, was a Senior Scientist of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (1999-2004), and has received (among others) the Lifetime Research Achievement award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the Paul Wood Silver Medal of the British Cardiac Society, the European Society of Cardiology gold medal, the American Heart Association Clinical Research Award, and over 35 other international and national awards for research, induction into the Royal Society of Canada, an appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada, and the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award, and has been inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
He has published over 1000 articles in refereed journals and was the second most cited researcher in the world for 2011 and has been among the highest cited scientists in the world (his H index is currently 17th of all scientists in history). He is the Immediate Past President of the World Heart Federation, where he has initiated the Emerging Leaders program to build capacity for implementation and policy research in all continents of the world, with the aim of halving the CVD burden globally within a generation.