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Help to build the finest heart institute in Canada. UPDATED Dr. Arvind Koshal The Surgeon Dr. Arvind Koshal has always been on the "A-list"—that mythical roster of extraordinary people who make their mark on the world. He was born in England and grew up in India as part of a family that lived and breathed medicine. His father, a chief of surgery, believed his son Arvind would be a surgeon "since before he was born." True to his father's prediction, not only did young Arvind become a surgeon, but he became the Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery for Capital Health in Edmonton. "Surgery is my passion," he says. While still a medical student, Dr. Koshal earned seven gold medals, including the Pfizer award for the most outstanding medical graduate. He went on to complete his cardiac surgery training at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and later joined the Harvard Medical Centre in Boston as a Canadian Heart Foundation Research Fellow. An accomplished cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Koshal performed Canada's first implantation of the Thoratec left ventricular assist device—a small blood pump that improves blood flow in malfunctioning hearts. He was also a member of the team that performed the first total artificial heart implant in Canada. He has numerous publications and many presentations at national and international forums. In 1994, Dr. Koshal was awarded the Wilbert J. Keon Award for outstanding contribution to Canada in the field of cardiovascular medicine. In 1999, he was elected as the President of the Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons and was awarded the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal and Alberta Centennial medal. In 1991, Dr. Koshal left the Ottawa Heart Institute for Capital Health in Edmonton. He became part of a team that shared his vision to build the finest heart institute in Canada. After more than a decade of planning, that vision became a reality. Dr. Koshal was there when the first shovels broke ground for the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute in the fall of 2003. "It's an amazing feeling to see a big dream unfold in front of you," he says. In the ten years that Dr. Koshal served as chief of cardiovascular surgery, Capital Health's heart transplant program has grown become the largest in the country. "We are very fortunate to have such an expert team here," he says. The expert surgical team will be an important part of the heart institute, but Dr. Koshal believes that just as the human heart exists within a cardiovascular system—intricately connected to other elements that all function together—the new Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute must function within a regional system that provides cardiac services across the province. Accordingly, Dr. Koshal leads the regional committee that plans cardiac services in Capital Health. Its goal is to ensure that heart patients will get the best care, whether they enter the system at the front doors of the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, or from an ambulance in a rural community. His new role as Director of Development and External Affairs builds on Dr. Koshal's strengths in seeing this bigger system picture. He will work to ensure the Heart Institute contributes to the regional, provincial and global agenda on preventing and treating heart disease. He will also work with the University Hospital Foundation to support its tremendous efforts to raise funds to advance medical education and to fund research programs and state-of-the-art equipment in the Heart Institute. Already, the campaign has raised $40 million. "We're working toward a future where heart disease is no longer a major cause of death for men and women in Alberta and where—when you need heart care—this heart institute is the best place to be," Dr. Koshal says. It's a vision Dr. Koshal says he shares with the A–list of
people who have supported him along his career path—his father,
his mentors, colleagues, patients, and friends—and his A-list
family: wife Arti, and sons Arjun, Anu and Amit.
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