Our Programs

The Ottawa Cardiovascular Centre (OCC) offers comprehensive cardiovascular care to a registered patient population of over 250,000 patients with approximately 50,000 active patients. Originally founded in 1987 by Drs. Joel Niznick and Brendan Quinn, OCC has grown to an 7 cardiologist group. As well OCC has integrated 2 Pediatric Cardiologists, 4 Internists an Endocrinologist into the practice to deal with the broader aspects of cardiovascular risk reduction.

We provide cardiology consultation, cardiovascular risk assessment, long term cardiovascular follow up and on site cardiovascular non-invasive testing at two sites. Our catchment area extends from Alexandria to Deep River and the Quebec border to the St Lawrence River. Annually we provide upward of 50,000 patient interactions within the broad spectrum of cardiovascular disease. Additionally, we provide more than 20,000 diagnostic tests, which afford additional screening opportunities. The predominant patient has CAD or other forms of atherosclerosis and multiple risk factors including obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, dyslipidemia and hypertension. Our nurses and physician assistants provide structured management to approximately 10,000 patients with our Lipid Optimization Tool achieving amongst the best cholesterol control rates in the world literature. Other patient management tools have been devised and are available for review on our websitewww.cvtoolbox.com. We are the gold standard for cardiovascular chronic disease management.

Our model is to provide comprehensive structured continuing care in an integrated approach to global risk factor modification and optimization. We target every patient for optimal risk reduction and provide continuity to ensure that this care is sustained. We have developed evidence based patient management checklists to assist in targeting therapy and have trained our 2 cardiac nurses to apply these algorithms to patient management. Our goal is to establish the Ottawa Cardiovascular Prevention Program to provide all our patients with optimal cardiovascular risk reduction. Through a modular approach we will apply our risk reduction to our own patients and to offer this service to a broader referral base.

We have integrated Cardiology Rapid Referral and Cardiovascular Residual Rick Clinics into our regular clinic schedule to ensure the most accessible and comprehensive evidence based care.