Salim Yusuf, MBBS, DPhil., is a Professor of Medicine, McMaster University; Director, Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences, and Vice-President of Research, Hamilton Health Sciences. Salim Yusuf is a cardiologist and epidemiologist. After qualifying in medicine from St.  John’s Medical College, Bangalore, India in 1976, he received a Rhodes Scholarship and obtained a DPhil. from Oxford, during which he was involved (along with Richard Peto and Peter Sleight) in initiating the concept of large, simple trials, and meta-analysis. He subsequently coordinated the first ISIS trial, and served on the steering committee of 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. There he applied these principles of large, simple trials to other areas that led to the SOLVD and DIG trials in heart failure.


In 1992 he moved to McMaster University, and since then has established an international program of research in cardiovascular diseases and prevention. These studies have established the roles of ACE-inhibitors, dual antiplatelet therapies, novel antithrombotics and appropriate place of invasive interventions. His epidemiologic work involving the INTERHEART and INTERSTROKE studies in over 60 countries have identified that the majority of risks of both conditions are attributable to a few common risk factors. His ongoing study (PURE) involves com- munities in 19 countries and examines the impact of societal changes on a range of noncommunicable diseases in about 400,000 people. He has also been a visiting professor at St. John’s Medical College in India for over the last twenty years, where he has collaborated in facilitating several projects and establishing a major research institute which coordinates a national network for clinical research.


He holds a Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario Research Chair, was a Senior Scientist of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and has received the Lifetime Research Achievement award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the 2001 Prix Galien Canada Research Award, the Lucian Award for Cardiovascular Research 2002, the Paul Wood Silver Medal of the British Cardiac Society 2003, elected as IACS Fellow, the European Society of Cardiology gold medal in 2008, and the American Heart Association Clinical Research Award in 2008, in addition to over 30 other international and national awards for research. He was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada in 2005. He has published over 600 articles, and is among the top 10 cited clinician-scientists in the world, with several articles deemed to be citation classics. His interests include population health in developing countries, evaluation of affordable and widely practical therapies, as well as broader influences on health, including the influence of environmental factors such as urbanization, economic development, social and cultural factors. His research collaboration involves 85 countries in all the inhabited continents of the world. He has trained numerous researchers who have made their independent impact.