Heart
Leading with heart
St. Paul’s Hospital is the lifeline for British Columbians living with heart disease.
Our Heart Centre is the referral hub for BC and Yukon’s most complex cardiac cases – because our clinicians and researchers are world-class pioneers in treating, researching, and even reversing diseases of the heart.
St. Paul’s Hospital is also the only centre in the province to perform adult heart transplants, and the only facility in BC where highly specialized cardiac care – for patients with advanced heart failure and heart transplants – is fully integrated with research.
- We’ve performed over 600 heart transplants and counting since 1988.
- In 2023 alone, our team conducted 849 open heart surgeries and 21 adult heart transplants, a feat unmatched anywhere else in BC.
- Our Centre for Heart Valve Innovation is where Dr. John Webb pioneered TAVI, a revolutionary way to replace faulty heart valves with a single, tiny incision. It is so low-impact that many patients go home the next day. This treatment was shared worldwide and today, more than 450,000 patients have benefitted from this life-changing surgery.
- We are home to the provincial centre for adults with congenital heart defects. These conditions are life altering and require lifelong care: 68% of adults living with congenital heart defects will have to go to the emergency department at some point in their lives and half will be hospitalized.
- We have BC’s only specialized cardiac obstetrics program. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of maternal mortality; our specialized program cares for these expectant moms and their newborns.
Our vision
With the construction of the new St. Paul’s Hospital on the Jim Pattison Medical Campus, we have a rare opportunity to transform cardiac care.
Heart disease is the second leading cause of death in Canada, and it affects 2.6 million Canadian adults (about one in 12 people).
Renowned for excellence in clinical care and research, our teams at St. Paul’s Hospital provide unparalleled cardiac care with a focus on ingenuity, insight, and innovation, setting new standards of care while expanding our understanding of heart disease.
Our current services include heart disease prevention and reversal, state-of-the-art diagnostic services, and a full spectrum of treatment and care, including surgery, heart transplants, and rehabilitation.
We are also a leader in teaching, training, and research locally, nationally, and internationally.
Our vision is one where everyone living with heart disease in BC has access to best-in-class care provided by St. Paul’s global leaders, in state-of-the-art spaces supported by the latest in research, biobanking, imaging, and surgical technologies.
At the new St. Paul’s Hospital on the Jim Pattison Medical Campus, we’ll have the opportunity to expand our bold vision and improve access to cardiac care across the province.
The new St. Paul’s Hospital will be home to three leading-edge heart treatment and research centres, changing the future of heart care in BC.
A leader in heart transplants
The heartbeat of hope
St. Paul’s Hospital is home to BC’s only adult heart transplant program. Since 1988, the hospital has performed over 600 life-saving heart transplants on patients.
Many of those heart transplants were completed by Dr. Anson Cheung, a leader in cardiac surgery. In 2020, he set a provincial record of four urgent heart transplants in 60 hours, breaking his previous record from 2016 of three transplants within a 24-hour period.
But there is also a vast network of health professionals working in concert like a finely tuned orchestra to conduct these heart transplants, including doctors, nurses, social workers, cardiologists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, perfusionists, radiologists, dietitians, and more. They guide patients through the process, from preparation to recovery, and provide care that’s grounded in compassion.
“Heart surgery is always a team sport,” says Dr. Cheung. “For transplants in particular, there’s an even bigger network of people that are required to be successful. In our hospital, everything starts with the patient at the centre, and then we rally and work together to surround the patient with the care they need.”
Patient story
A double heart transplant patient becomes an advocacy leader
Jillianne Code is quick to describe her heart team at St. Paul’s Hospital as family. After all, her team of nurses and doctors have cared for her for close to half her life, sharing some of the most intimate, desperate, and hopeful moments imaginable.
Twice they have shared moments when her life hung in a balance. Twice they have brought her news of the ultimate gift – a donor heart. Twice they have saved her life.
Code’s heart journey began when she was 27. Since then, she’s had two heart transplants, battled through related complications, and done postdoctoral work at Harvard. Two decades later, she is both grateful for the care she’s received and eager to see people across BC gain greater access to the care and expertise provided by St. Paul’s cardiac teams and programs.
“I am what they have enabled me to be. They have enabled me to live and to do the work I’m doing now,” she says.
In 2016, Code collaborated with the Heart Centre’s Physician Program Director Dr. Sean Virani and fellow heart-transplant recipient Marc Bains to found the HeartLife Foundation, the only heart-failure advocacy group in Canada run by patients for patients. She hopes that by sharing her story on her blog, Heart Failure to Harvard, and advocating for change, people living with heart failure in BC will find hope and enjoy the level of care she received and so greatly treasures.
“We need to re-envision how cardiac care is delivered in this province so that all people are as well cared for as I have been,” she says. “That’s my greatest wish.”
Centre for Advanced Heart Failure
We’re working to ensure all patients with advanced heart failure receive the best care
There are approximately 90,000 British Columbians living with heart failure – and that number is expected to double by 2030. St. Paul’s Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Program has long served as the provincial hub for care of those experiencing advanced heart failure.
Right now, the Provincial Centre for Advanced Heart Failure at St. Paul’s is home to global experts who treat end stage heart failure and care for people from across the province for whom conventional treatments and therapies are no longer working, providing desperately needed solutions like mechanical circulatory support and transplantation.
To better serve people with advanced heart failure, the Centre is working to ensure that the approximately 100 patients a year in BC who could benefit from St. Paul’s expertise – but don’t because they live in remote areas – have access to our team of world-class experts. With the new St. Paul’s Hospital on the horizon, we have an opportunity to meaningfully improve access to care for patients.
To support these patients, the Centre is expanding its reach, working with partners to establish tools to identify high-risk patients, create pathways for referral and transfer, and build a model of care that brings hospitalized patients with advanced heart failure to St. Paul’s.
Cardiogenetics
We’re building a first-of-its-kind centre that will become a learning hub for patients and researchers alike.
Heart disease casts a formidable shadow over Canada, making the rhythm of a heartbeat more precious than ever. It ranks as the second leading cause of death, with nine out of 10 Canadians facing at least one heart disease risk factor. Approximately 70,000 lives are claimed by heart disease annually, and over 30% of cases have genetic roots.
To address these alarming numbers, St. Paul’s Hospital has initiated the Provincial Centre for Cardiovascular Genetics, aimed at improving diagnosis and personalized therapies for Canadians affected by or predisposed to inherited heart conditions. It merges cardiovascular medicine and genetics expertise to enhance the quality of life for those living with heart disease in Canada. This centre will be located on the new Jim Pattison Medical Campus.
Cardiogenetics weaves together cardiology, clinical genetics, and research, offering a comprehensive response to inherited cardiac diseases.
Integrated care for patients and families
Patients and their families are a central part of this process, and our clinicians and researchers will work together to identify and treat them as a family unit.
Providing comprehensive, integrated care for patients and families with inherited heart conditions will improve access to diagnosis and treatment for all British Columbians; and subsequently, minimize mortality and disability, all while increasing quality of life.
By fostering a seamless integration of education, research, innovation, and clinical management, St. Paul’s Hospital can greatly impact the quality of care across the province.
Our comprehensive approach: A nexus of expertise and collaborative care
Numerous clinical and research programs individually command recognition as provincial and national centres of excellence within the halls of St. Paul’s Hospital.
Drawing upon these existing pillars, we are poised to construct a pioneering initiative in Canada, introducing a learning health system. A key element will involve integrating all current cardiovascular clinics requiring genetics support under one umbrella.
Our multidisciplinary team of clinicians, genetic counsellors, nurses, administrators, and researchers will form a nexus that extends across the province, collaborating to:
- Establish care standards
- Define benchmarks for quality
- Spearhead best practices
- Educate and inform patients, health care providers, and influential decision-makers
“Cardiogenetics is not a new field. What will be new is having a central hub where experts in the field can work together in a coordinated way at a single location. A workplace with resources to support patient care and assessment where we can really leverage everything we know, and everything we learn about cardiac care.”
Dr. Sean Virani
Head, Division of Cardiology, Providence Health Care
Leveraging technology to help people worldwide
St. Paul’s Hospital is already leading the way in genomic medicine. We run the Bruce McManus Biobank, one of the largest in the nation. The Provincial Centre for Cardiogenetics on the Jim Pattison Medical Campus will expand St. Paul’s biobanking capabilities, becoming the premier provincial hub for DNA isolation and preservation.
It will include hearts from transplant patients, sudden cardiac death cases, and aortic tissue from those with hereditary aortopathy. This will greatly aid in future research to better understand who is at risk of a cardiac event, so that we can prevent life-threatening incidents before they happen.
The new Centre will harness IT to link cardiogenetic biobanks across the province, serving as a resource for clinicians across BC and as a patient portal, providing genetic information and links to relevant resources. It will also connect with international biobanks, further improving our ability to screen for heritable heart disease.
Unraveling the underlying genetics will not only improve care – it will bring peace of mind to countless patients and families.
Heart failure, motherhood, and embracing life after transplant thanks to the team at St. Paul’s Hospital
Imagine the joy of a long-awaited pregnancy. Then imagine, while only four months along, learning the devastating news that your heart is failing.
This is what happened to Christine.
“I was quite shocked because I wasn’t expecting to hear that, and I didn’t really know what the words ‘heart failure’ meant,” she says. “The first thing I thought was, what’s going to happen to my baby?”
Christine was referred to the Virani Provincial Adult Congenital Heart (VPACH) Program at St. Paul’s Hospital, where staff could monitor her pregnancy and her heart. She learned that while heart failure is serious, it doesn’t mean her heart would immediately stop beating – and that many people with the condition live healthy, full lives.
“It really helped to lift that seriousness of the diagnosis,” she says. “The clinic explained to me that the care on the maternity ward would be in conjunction with my heart care, and they’d be able to monitor me throughout my pregnancy and delivery. It gave me great peace of mind to know that they would have my back.”
With tremendous support from the Pregnancy, Birthing, and Newborn and cardiology departments at St. Paul’s Hospital, Christine made it through her pregnancy and safely delivered her baby girl.
Almost a decade later, Christine needed a heart transplant. Once again, the staff at St. Paul’s Hospital wrapped her up in dedicated, compassionate care, facilitating a successful heart transplant in 2019.
Christine struggled with a few setbacks during recovery, but the rehabilitation team at St. Paul’s Hospital was with her every step of the way. Today she’s doing great, and takes immense pleasure from the simple moments.
“My daughter was only seven when I had my transplant. I was just so scared about having to leave her,” she says. “My new heart has just been a gift – the gift of time with my daughter, husband, and extended family.”
With your support, we’re getting closer to not only treating heart disease more effectively, but to preventing it in the first place. You can redefine cardiac health in British Columbia.
Read more
-
From healing to giving: Heart surgery patient pays it forward to Lights of Hope with support from her company, Grosvenor
-
Researchers at St. Paul’s Hospital to launch first-in-Canada database for this heart condition
-
Home is where the heart is
-
This is the new stethoscope. This is the future.
-
Another “first and only” at St. Paul’s Hospital
-
T’was a night after Christmas, when out went the call: Hurry! Go now! You must get to St. Paul’s!
-
What a difference a year makes
-
If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants