John A. Cairns

John A. Cairns, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS, FRCP, FACC

Professor of Medicine and Past Dean of Medicine, UBC

John Cairns obtained his MD from the University of British Columbia (1968) and was awarded the Hamber Gold Medal. He trained in the teaching hospitals of McGill University, obtaining his FRCPC in Cardiology (1973) and Medicine (1974). Following research training at the Royal Victoria Hospital (MRC Fellowship), he joined the Department of Medicine at McMaster University where he directed the ICU at MUMC, then the Regional Cardiovascular Program and was chair of the Department of Medicine from 1988-1996. He was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of UBC from 1996-2003 where he led efforts resulting in dramatic increases of provincial funding and culminating in agreements to double the enrolment of medical students and residents and substantially expand facilities. During an 18 month period from 2004-05, he led the CIHR Clinical Research Initiative, which developed recommendations for strengthening clinical research in Canada. He is currently a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at UBC.

Johns' research interests have included studies of modification and non-invasive measurement of myocardial infarction size in humans and dogs and studies of acute ischemic syndromes with a particular focus on antithrombotic therapies, coronary care utilization, and post-myocardial infarction arrhythmias. He held peer-review funding continuously from 1975-1996 from HSFO, MRC and MOH, as well as substantial industrial funding. He has been the PI of major clinical trials which have been published and extensively cited, reporting studies in unstable angina, angioplasty restenosis, and post-myocardial infarction arrhythmia; has been a co-principal investigator in additional trials of AMI and atrial fibrillation; has been a member of the executive steering committees of further trials in AMI; and has been a co-author of formal overviews in relation to many of these trials. He has chaired or been a member of the DSMB's of numerous clinical trials. He chaired the clinical guidelines process for the American College of Chest Physicians in the areas of coronary thrombolysis (1989, 1992, 1995 and 1998) and antithrombotic agents for coronary disease (1992, 1995, and 1998). He chaired the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Consensus Conference on coronary thrombolysis in 1993 and 1994, and was a member of the consensus conferences on Post AMI Management and on Ventricular Arrhythmias. He is a coeditor of the Blackwell textbook, Evidence Based Cardiology (1998, 2002 and 2009) along with Yusuf, Fallen, Gersh and Camm. He is currently co-chair of the steering committee of CONNeCTIN, a Canadian and international clinical trials network recently funded by CFI and CIHR and headquartered at McMaster University.

John has served on the executives of several academic societies and on several editorial boards, including CSCI and CIM. He has been Chair of the Research Development and Review Committee of the HSFO, President of the Canadian Association of Professors of Medicine, and President of the Association of Canadian Medical Colleges. He holds elected fellowships in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (London), and the American College of Cardiology and is a member of the International Society for Heart Research.