A world-class model

The Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) has the reputation of providing quality care that rivals what is provided by leading facilities around the world such as the Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic in the United States, and the ThoraxCentre in Holland. Several factors explain why the Institute is in a class by itself.

Its contributions to the international advancement of science

First and foremost, the idea of grouping all services under one roof has contributed greatly to the rapid development of cardiology. In addition, since the 1990s, the Institute's clinical researchers have contributed to improving treatments in cardiology around the world, particularly in the following areas: heart transplants; stable angina; the benefits of exercise following an infarction; coronary restenosis thanks to the use of antioxidants for prevention; atrial fibrillation; the pathology of bypasses; the effect of cholesterol lowering medications on coronary atherosclerosis; the role of aspirin and heparin in unstable angina; and many others!

The breadth of its work

The Institute's researchers publish an average of 180 scientific articles each year, most often in the world's most prestigious medical journals, such as The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, Circulation Research, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, American Journal of Physiology, The American Journal of Cardiology and Nature. In addition, since it was founded, the Institute has hosted more than 450 fellows from various countries, many of who hold prestigious positions in Europe and North and South America. The Institute also organizes a number of annual conferences and symposia for physicians and healthcare professionals from Quebec, Canada and abroad. In addition, over the past 18 years, as part of the Symposium of Interventional Cardiology, the Institute has broadcast live with resounding success some 30 interventional procedures to more than 600 viewers the world over.

Its role as a national and supraregional model

The Institute plays a key role in this regard. Through its protocols, it disseminates high level practice standards that are quickly accepted. Moreover, its members are often invited to share their expertise by presiding over or participating in prestigious organizations.

Its status

The MHI is one of the few centres to take part into the studies financed by the National Institutes of Health based in the United States.

Its leading-edge treatments

As an example, interventions performed at the MHI are less and less invasive and the length of hospitalization is shorter and shorter.

Its medical team

In addition to possessing rare skills, the Institute's medical team is involved in its activities—care, research and teaching—on a full-time basis, to the exclusion of any private practice.

Its tradition of excellence in research

This tradition was established by Dr. Paul David and the Institute's builders, Drs. Martial G. Bourassa, Lucien Campeau and Jacques Lespérance. These men were members of the prestigious team that, in 1973, won the Prix Jean Lenègre, awarded to a French-language researcher or research team for making a decisive contribution to the development of cardiology worldwide.

Its areas of specialization

Patients of the Institute can find under one roof renowned specialists, expertise and leading-edge technology focused in strategic areas such as surgery, hemodynamics, specialized cardiac care, electrophysiology and nuclear medicine.

Its medical practice plan

Under this plan—the first of its kind, established when the Institute was founded—all revenues generated by the clinical practice are pooled and then redistributed equally in support of research, teaching, and other clinical and administrative activities.

Its Research Centre

The Centre's mission is to develop and run research and technology development programs related to the Institute's vocation. Given the reputation the Institute has earned in clinical and basic research, it is often called upon to work in partnership with private business.

Its Centre for Preventive Medicine and Rehabilitation in Cardiology: ÉPIC

The ÉPIC Centre is the largest of its kind in Canada, the largest in North America for that matter.

More than 50 years of public service The Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) was founded in 1954 by Dr. Paul David. For 45 years, he was the heart and soul of the Institute, to which he had conferred a profoundly humanistic character from its very beginnings. Upon his death in 1999, Dr. David left his successors a priceless legacy. Dr. Paul David's initiative In the early 1950s, the science of cardiology was still in its infancy when a young Dr. Paul David attended a Paris conference, which instilled in him a sense that the field of cardiology would develop at lightning speed over the coming decades. At that moment, he conceived of the project–a very innovative one for the time–to create a Montréal-based facility wholly devoted to the development of cardiology. The Grey Nuns' support Dr. Paul David's dream became a reality thanks to the wonderful support of the Grey Nuns. They offered to make him Head of the Cardiology Department and gave him free reign to use the available space as he pleased. The Cardiology Department was to have full administrative independence. A promising beginning The Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) was born in 1954. Occupying two floors of the new Hôpital Maisonneuve, the Institute had 42 beds and a medical team of three cardiologists and two surgeons. The idea of bringing all cardiology services together under one roof soon caught on and the Institute became a model copied around the world. In January 1966, the Institute moved into newly-built, specially-designed premises on Bélanger Street. The building was expanded 10 years later and in 1995 a new wing was added to house the Research Centre, which had grown considerably over the years. Key partners In the late 1960s, the Institute was fortunate to attract such a significant patron as Montréal financier, J.-Louis Lévesque, who supported the facility for more than a quarter of a century. The Institute subsequently acquired a partner whose mandate is to raise funds to support its development. This partner is the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF). The Institute has been able to count on the Foundation's increasing support ever since. Keeping with the highest aspirations The Montreal Heart Institute is a hospital highly specialized in cardiology, devoted to patient care, research, teaching, prevention, rehabilitation, and the evaluation of new technologies in cardiology. The Institute's values are based on: respecting the quality of life of its patients and their family developing human resources seeking excellence and innovation protecting public health being open to the community and the health network following rigorous management practices embracing an ethic based on transparency obtaining informed consent from its patients