Foothills Interventional
The Foothills Interventional Cardiology Service (FICS) is the cardiology team in Calgary who provide interventional cardiology procedures to patients in Southern Alberta. Interventional procedures are catheter based treatments of structural heart disease. The most common procedures would include coronary angiograms or angioplasty. The FICS team has a reputation for excellent quality of care and continues to strive to improve cardiovascular outcomes in Alberta.
About Us
The Foothills Interventional Cardiology Service (FICS) is the cardiology team in Calgary who provide cardiovascular interventional procedures for southern Alberta. This program has been an integral part of the Calgary Health Region (CHR) since 1981. As a premier program within the Division of Cardiology, FICS has established a reputation of excellence. The quality of our care and of our outcomes are well-known and respected in the medical community. Our goal is to maintain our record of excellence in Interventional Cardiology and to continue to grow in the three spheres of cardiovascular care: clinical, research and education.
Together, our skilled physicians and professional staff provide an extensive array of high quality cardiovascular services to adults. We offer the latest, most technologically advanced diagnostic tests and treatments for atherosclerosis, using stents (bare metal and drug-eluting), fractional flow reserve assessment, intra-vascular ultrasound (IVUS), thrombectomy devices, distal-protection devices, patent foramen ovale and ASD closure devices, alcohol septal ablation and management of peripheral vascular disease. Our staff are specially trained to help cardiac patients deal with their conditions and provide education and therapy to support patients and their families as they face the future.
The Foothills Medical Centre has created a centralized and highly efficient process for the management of patients requiring diagnostic and interventional cardiac procedures. FICS performs approximately 2400 interventional angioplasty procedures per annum. In addition, approximately 6,500 diagnostic procedures are performed on an annual basis. The FMC has the physical layout of the catheterization laboratory consists of three dedicated laboratories for interventional procedures and two for diagnostic procedures. Salient features of the clinical service provided by FICS are:
- 24/7 dedicated team comprised of interventional cardiologists, interventional fellows, nursing, physiological technicians, and radiology technicians for the management of acute patients.
- A dedicated 8 patient bed post-angioplasty unit juxtaposed to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit staffed with highly trained critical care nurses.
- High volume centre for interventional procedures with each Interventionalist performing > 300 procedures on average per annum (high operator expertise).
- Unique acute myocardial infarction management program incorporating primary angioplasty - called the STEMI Initiative.
- Dedicated clinical nursing personnel who work in close collaboration with personnel in the catheterization laboratory to triage and facilitate PCI referrals and patient care issues pre and post procedure.
- Established research focus highly developed databases such as APPROACH (Alberta Provincial Project for Outcome Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease), interventional database (includes IVUS and pressure wire data), STEMI database (Strategic Evaluation and Management of ST Elevation Myocardial Infarctions) as well as extensive research in the area of endovascular function.
- Commitment to improve patient education and transition to the community with the STEMI Follow-up Clinic Pilot Project.
- Close coordination with other cardiac services within the Department of Cardiac Sciences.
History of FICS:
Interventional Cardiology was first introduced to Calgary in 1981 by Dr. Merril Knudtson who trained under Dr. Andreas Gruentzig. In collaboration with Calgary Cardiologists, Dr. David Roth and Dr. James Hansen, the angioplasty program was created in Calgary at the Holy Cross Hospital. By the early 1990's cardiac intervention was also being performed at the Foothills Medical Centre. With regionalization of health services in Calgary in 1996, the Interventional Cardiology program was consolidated at the Foothills Medical Centre. Today the service has evolved to a physician group of nine Interventional Cardiologists, a support network of research/clinical nurses, data and project coordinators, research analysts, radiology and physiology technicians as well as an administrative assistant.
- Faisal Al-Qoofi
- Francois Charbonneau
- Michael Curtis
- David Goodhart
- Jim Hansen
- Ronak Kanani
- Merril Knudtson
- Frank Spence
- Dean Traboulsi
Trainees
- Dr. Faisal Alqoofi:
- Dr. Faisal Alqoofi was born in Saudi Arabia and attended Medical School in King Saud University in Riyadh. Faisal joined the Internal Medicine Program at McMaster University, Hamilton Ontario in 2001. Faisal headed west to the University of Calgary where began the Cardiology Training Program in January 2004. Faisal's hobbies include swimming, which he admits he hasn't done for quite some time.
- Dr. Andrea Lavoie:
- Andrea Lavoie obtained her MD from the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan (1999) after completing her BSc. in Microbiology (1995). She then completed her Internal Medical residency at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia (2002) and stayed on to do a fellowship in Adult Cardiology (2005). She then returned to western Canada to complete her two year fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at the Foothills Medical Centre under the mentorship of the FICS group. She has special interests in intra-vascular ultrasound (IVUS), heart disease in women and medical education.
- Dr. Jason Orvold:
- Jason Orvold graduated from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon in 1996. He subsequently graduated from the College of Medicine at the U of S in 2000. He completed his residency and Royal College Certification in Internal Medicine at the U of S in 2004. He then went on to complete a Cardiology fellowship at the U of S achieving certification in 2006. Currently he is completing a one year fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at the Foothills Medical Centre, University of Calgary, Alberta. Upon completion of this he is returning to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan with his wife, Melanie, and children Spencer and Ali. He will provide General and Interventional Cardiology Services for the Saskatoon Health Region.
- Dr. Andrew Philpot:
- Andrew Philpott qualified from Adelaide University Medical School (1989-1995), and undertook specialist training in Cardiology and Clinical Pharmacology in Adelaide (Australia) (1997-2002), followed by a PhD in cardiovascular pharmacology at the University of Adelaide (2003-2005). Andrew commenced a two year interventional fellowship at Foothills hospital and post-doctoral studies with the TORCH research program in 2006.
Management & Research Team
There is a very professional and talented team facilitating the services, research and educational aspects of the FICS group. They are there to ensure the safety of patients and to coordinated for ongoing improvements to the service including caring and educating patients as well as coordinating research.
