PURE

Salim Yusuf

Founder and Emeritus Executive Director, Senior Scientist

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 from St John’s Medical College in Bangalore in 1976, he received a Rhodes Scholar-ship 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 established the structure for future international collaborative work in cardiovascular and several other diseases) that demonstrated the value of beta-blockers in myo-cardial 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 led the 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 as head of cardiology, where he established an inter-national program of research in cardiovascular diseases and prevention, culminating in the creation of the Population Health Research Institute. His therapeutic trials have established the roles of ACE-inhibitors in CVD prevention, dual antiplatelet therapies in acute coronary syndromes, novel antithrombotic therapies, and most recently the value of the polypill in substantially pre-venting heart attacks and strokes globally, and at low cost. The Polypill was recently included by the WHO in its Essential Medicines List.

His epidemiologic work in over 80 countries involving all inhabited continents of the world shows the majority of risks of both heart attacks and strokes are attributable to a few risk factors. He currently leads the PURE study exploring the role of societal and environmental factors in CVD. This study (PURE) involves 200,000 people from over 800 communities in 27 high, middle and low-income countries.

He has built capacity for clinical and population research across Canada and the world by establishing research networks involving over 1500 sites in 102 countries. He has trained over 100 researchers, many of whom are now 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 over 100) the Lifetime Research Achievement award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the World Heart Federation, the Paul Wood Silver Medal of the British Cardiac Society, the European So-ciety of Cardiology gold medal, the American Heart Association Clinical Research Award, the Killam Prize, and the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award in 2014. He has been inducted into the Royal Society of Canada, been appointed an Officer in the Order of Canada, and has been in-ducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2023 he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford. He has been conferred 4 honorary doctorates.

He has published over 1400 articles, 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) for over a decade. He is Past President of the World Heart Federation, where he initiated the Emerging Leaders program (now named after him) to build capacity for research in all continents of the world, with the aim of halving the CVD burden globally within a generation. This program has already trained over 250 individuals from 50 countries.

Darryl Leong

Senior Scientist

Leong’s clinical interests include cardio-oncology, frailty, multi-morbidity, and echocardiography. He is the Director of the McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences Cardio-Oncology Program. Leong graduated from the University of Adelaide Medical School with Deans Listing and Honours for academic excellence in 2000. He completed his cardiology training, Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Public Health, and Master of Biostatistics degrees at the University of Adelaide, Australia. He has completed a fellowship in cardiovascular imaging at the Leiden University Medical Centre, the Netherlands, before relocating to Canada.

Leong is an Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences. His research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canadian Cancer Society, and the United States Department of Defense, among others. He has published approximately 200 manuscripts, including leading publications in the Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine as well as top cardiovascular journals. He is a Clinician Scientist of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and has received the Clive Kearon Mid-Career Award from McMaster University. Additionally, he serves as the Director of the Internal Medicine Resident Research Program and the Cardio-Oncology Program at McMaster University.

Andrew Mente

Scientist

Andrew Mente is a Principal Investigator for the Epidemiology program at PHRI, and Associate Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University. He’s working in the ongoing Population Urban and Rural Epidemiological (PURE) study, interested in the role of nutrients, foods, and dietary patterns in cardiovascular diseases in populations around the world.

He has received a Project Grant from CIHR to study diet and brain health, a Research Fellowship from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and a Research Early Career Award from Hamilton Health Sciences, and has published more than 130 papers and two book chapters. Andrew received his doctoral degree in Epidemiology from the University of Toronto, and completed his post-doctoral training in cardiovascular epidemiology at McMaster University.

Mahshid Dehghan

Investigator

Mahshid Dehghan is an Investigator for the Nutrition Epidemiology program at PHRI, and the nutrition lead of the Population Urban and Rural Epidemiological (PURE) study and the INTERSTROKE study. Her main interests are the development of methods to measure dietary intake of individuals around the world, and understanding the impact of dietary factors in the cause and prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer. She has published 39 papers and 2 book chapters.

She holds two Masters of Clinical Nutrition and Health Research Methodology, received her doctoral degree in Clinical Nutrition from Newcastle University, England, and completed post-doctoral training in Nutrition Epidemiology at McMaster University.

Philip Joseph

Scientist

Philip Joseph’s research interests include cardiovascular prevention, global health, heart failure, and cardiac imaging. He is the principal investigator for the PURE-AF substudy, and the SPECT-MINS study, an investigator in the PURE study, and the G-CHF registry. He is also the project officer for the TIPS-3 study. He has published more than 30 peer-reviewed scientific papers.

He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, with certification in both internal medicine and cardiology. obtained his B.A.Sc at McMaster University in 2000, and his M.D. at Western University in 2004. His internal medicine (2004-2007) and cardiology (2007-2010) residencies were completed at the University of Ottawa. Subsequently, he completed additional clinical training in Nuclear Cardiology at McMaster University (2013), a M.Sc. in Health Research Methodology at McMaster (2010-13), and a post-doctoral research fellowship in PET imaging at Harvard University (2015).

Harry Klimis

Research Fellow

Harry Klimis is a Clinical and Research Fellow at PHRI and McMaster University, supervised by Darryl Leong and Salim Yusuf. His training features an integrated cardio-oncology research and clinical program dedicated to understanding the evolution of cardiovascular risk factor patterns in healthy populations and people with cancer, and their association with CVD and mortality. Harry is an investigator in the RADICAL-PC and SCHOLAR-2 studies, and will be working on the PURE study.

Harry is an Australian cardiologist and completed both his MBBS and PhD at the University of Sydney. His research has primarily focused on primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and digital health interventions. Other research interests include cardio-oncology and echocardiography.

Ryo Naito

Associate Investigator

After working as a cardiologist for more than 10 years in Japan, Ryo Naito became a PHRI Research Fellow in 2018, joining the PURE study team. His research interests include preventive cardiology, heart failure, and ischemic heart disease. He is now an Associate Investigator at PHRI.

MyLinh Duong

Associate Scientist

MyLinh Duong is a respirologist at Hamilton Health Sciences, and Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, McMaster University. Her research interests include respiratory epidemiology, and understanding the environmental and social determinants of lung development and lung function. She is the respiratory lead for a number of PHRI’s population-based studies including PURE, FAMILY and the global heart failure registry, G-CHF.

She obtained her medical degree, specialist and sub-specialist training in Internal Medicine, Sleep Medicine and Respiratory Medicine at the University of Adelaide, Australia. This was followed by a research fellowship in the areas of airway inflammation, asthma and COPD at the Firestone Clinic and McMaster University, Canada, where she obtained a Master’ degree in Health Research Methodology and Epidemiology.

Eric Smith

Associate Senior Scientist

Eric Smith is a Professor of Clinical Neurosciences, and the Katthy Taylor Chair in Vascular Dementia in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, and Hotchkiss Brain Institute, and a member of the Calgary Stroke program. His research program has three main components: Population studies of brain health, using neuroimaging to identify predictors of cognitive impairment and decline; biomarker studies in patients with cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy; and quality improvement and health outcomes research in patients with stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage. His research has been funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions, Canadian Stroke Network, and the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

He received his MD degree from McGill University in 1998 and completed a residency in Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School. A one-year fellowship in Stroke and Vascular Neurology was completed at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2003. He earned a Master of Public Health degree (MPH) from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2005.

Isabelle Johansson

Associate Research Fellow

Isabelle Johansson was a Research Fellow (2019-2021) at PHRI, supervised by Salim Yusuf, and McMaster University where she pursued a Masters in Health Research Methodology, clinical epidemiology. Her main research interests are in heart failure, diabetes, global health, and cardiovascular disease prevention. At PHRI, she is an Investigator in the G-CHF-study and the PURE study. Isabelle was in the 2019 cohort of the World Heart Federation Salim Yusuf Emerging Leaders Programme, focusing on reducing the burden of heart failure globally.

She obtained her M.D. from the Karolinska Institutet Medical University, Stockholm, Sweden in 2014 and has completed two out five years of clinical training in a residency in family medicine. She completed her Ph.D. in medical sciences at the Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medicine in 2017 where she studied epidemiological aspects of heart failure in combination with diabetes. Isabelle was part of the European Society of Cardiology task force writing the guidelines for the management of diabetes and cardiovascular disease presented in September 2019.

Sumathy Rangarajan

Program Director

Sumathy Rangarajan has been Program Director, Global Health, since 2016, preceded by many years’ service at PHRI in other roles. She oversees the PURE study team, as well as the INVICTUS rheumatic AF treatment trial, the CANPWR pediatric weight management registry, and others.

She holds both a Bachelor of Science Degree and a Master of Science degree from Pune University in India.

Maha Mushtaha

Project Manager

Maha Mushtaha has been employed by the Population Health Research Institute since 2011, working currently in the global health research group on the following studies: PURE, SCHOLAR-2 and TIMING. She has experience with site and database management of large, international observational studies as well as investigator-initiated clinical trials.

She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from McMaster University and a Biotechnology Diploma from Mohawk College.

Shameena Ramacham Parambath

Medical Classification Specialist

Shameena Ramacham Parambath currently works as a Medical Classification Specialist at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI). Within her role, she is responsible for adjudicating clinical events, coding and classification of morbidity and mortality using the International Classification of Diseases ICD-10 in the Population Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. Since 2014, she has been a member of the adjudication committee and trained in event adjudication by Dr. Gilles R Dagenais, Chair of Adjudication Committee. She has interests in Clinical Decision Support Learning and Mortality classification to improve the quality of cause of death index at the public health policy level.

Shameena received her medical degree from Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore, India and second Bachelors in Health Information Management from the Canadian Health Information Management Association (CHIMA) in Canada. Additionally, she holds a license from the American Health Information Management Association, USA as a Certified Tumor Registrar to use ICD-O3 in Oncology Registry. Under Health Information Management domains of practice, her specialization was in mortality for her Masters in Public Health from Walden University, USA. Shameena holds an active global license to code and classify Mortality [Nosology, Death Vital Statistics Registry ] from 3 major health Information associations: CHIMA; the American Health Information Management Association; and the Health Information Management Association of Australia.