Research
Cardiac Research
The Division of Cardiac Surgery has a long tradition of innovative research in transplantation, arrhythmia surgery and, more recently, minimal access and robotic surgery. In 2001 LHSC was successful in attracting $17.2 million of funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund, Ontario Innovation Trust and private sector partners to establish a national centre for minimally invasive and robotic surgery.
Pre-clinical studies in the latter domain are carried out in the Canadian Surgical Technologies & Advanced Robotics (CSTAR) unit within the Lindros Legacy Research Pavilion at the University Hospital.
The Division of Cardiac Surgery also has a dedicated clinical research infrastructure, with two clinical research associates and a mature clinical database that facilitates the conduct of retrospective and prospective cohort studies. In addition, we have conducted three single centre randomized controlled trials to answer pivotal clinical questions in our surgical cohort during the past four years. Recently, we have initiated a research collaboration with the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University and are important participants in several large, multi-centre randomized controlled trials in surgical patients. Members of our division have served on editorial boards and as an Associate Editor of major cardiothoracic surgical publications, regularly publish the results of our research in peer-reviewed journals and frequently present at national and international meetings.
