Matters of the Heart: Staying Alive

Your heart is a marvelously complex organ responsible for pumping blood to the body, delivering oxygen and nutrients to all tissues, and removing carbon dioxide and other wastes. Cardiovascular disease, which can lead to heart attack, heart failure, sudden death, stroke, and acute limb ischemia, affects millions each year and involves a huge cost to society. Staying alive means protecting yourself from the risk of having either a first time or subsequent event. This session will be a simplified state-of-the-art review of the cardiovascular system in health and disease, and the management of risk factors. Diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease will be discussed, as well as future developments in personalized medicine through genetics and biomarkers, and advances in imaging, devices, and artificial intelligence.

BIOGRAPHY:

Dr. David Fell is an invasive cardiologist with a large clinical practice at Southlake Regional Health Center in Newmarket, where he served as Physician Leader and Chief of Cardiology for 13 years, and led the development of what is now the third largest regional cardiac care program in Ontario. He was also VP of cardiac and cancer programs at Southlake for four years and regional VP for Cancer Care Ontario. After graduating from Queen’s University in Kingston in 1981 he specialized in internal medicine and cardiology. He worked at the Toronto Western and Scarborough Grace Hospitals, where he was Chief of Staff at the time of its merger with the Scarborough General in 1998–99. He and his wife Donna have four children and three grandchildren. He has a deep Christian faith. An avid sailor, Dr. Fell raced competitively in regattas all over the world, and was a member of Canada’s National sailing team.