Heart & Vascular Program

We aim to promote and restore the health and well-being of individuals and families affected by heart disease. Our services help patients and their families learn about treatments, identify risk factors and work toward making heart-healthy lifestyle changes. Our objectives demonstrate our commitment to the promotion of health in education, clinical care and research:

Educational Objectives

• To be a community resource for various aspects of cardiac prevention including medical and psychosocial interventions, obesity counseling, and smoking cessation.
• To be the main resource and education centre for preventative health promotion for cardiology trainees at the University of Toronto.
• To allow health care trainees from variety of disciplines including nursing, medicine and allied health exposure to health promotion in the cardiac rehabilitation setting.
  

Clinical Objectives

• To improve quality of life for the cardiac patient.
• To provide counseling on heart-healthy living that will reduce the risk of further coronary heart disease.
• To reduce deaths from coronary heart disease.
• To reduce further admissions to hospital for coronary heart disease.
• To reduce health care costs.
  

Research Objectives

• Foster development and profile research in the cardiac prevention and risk reduction field from all groups of health care professionals.
• Link various programs at St. Michael's Hospital and University of Toronto to the heart and vascular program and cardiac patients via satellite projects pertaining to health promotion.
• Maintain a gender lens on cardiovascular research for our female and male patients.