A combined gift from the Shah Family Foundation and the Gloria Baylis Foundation will help advance the diagnosis and treatment of heart rhythm disorders through a new Western chair. The chair will be named to honour Dr. George Klein, a pioneering electrophysiologist and professor at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.
The Dr. George J. Klein Shah-Baylis Chair recognizes Klein’s contributions to cardiac electrophysiology, a branch of cardiology that diagnoses and treats heart rhythm disorders, known as arrhythmias. It will also strengthen the London Heart Rhythm Program (LHRP). Founded by Klein in the 1970s, the LHRP is home to an acclaimed heart rhythm clinical and research fellowship training program at London Health Sciences Centre’s University Hospital in London, Ont.
Under Klein’s leadership, LHRP researchers have explored the cellular and electrical processes that cause arrhythmia and developed innovative treatments, including surgical and catheter ablation and implantable devices such as pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs). The impact these treatments make on patients’ lives is often profound, moving them from a state of constant fatigue and limited physical activity to a higher quality of life.
With about 25,000 pacemakers and 7,000 ICDs implanted in Canadians each year, and demand rising as the population ages and more patients survive to develop chronic heart failure, the need for devices promoting comfort and overall health grows.
The new endowed $8-million chair, funded by two gifts of $2 million each from the Shah Family Foundation and Gloria Baylis Foundation, and matched by a $4-million investment from Western, will help the LHRP respond to that demand.
Dr. John Yoo, dean of Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, thanked the donors on behalf of Western and the department of cardiology.
“We are grateful for the foresight and generosity of the Gloria Baylis Foundation and the Shah Family Foundation,” Yoo said. “Their transformational investment will advance cardiac electrophysiology research and have real-world impact, ensuring patients will continue to benefit from more effective, evidence-based care.”
Honouring a leader, investing in the future
For more than five decades, Dr. George Klein and the LHRP have helped transform the diagnosis and treatment of heart rhythm disorders.
From inventing the implantable loop recorder – a cardiac monitor that tracks, over the long term, the heart rhythm of patients with recurrent unexplained fainting – to holding 12 U.S. patents and training more than 65 research fellows, Klein has made countless lives better.
Frank Baylis
His achievements and breakthroughs align well with the values of the foundations supporting the Klein Shah-Baylis Chair, which share a commitment to expanding access to health care and education, and to supporting innovative, collaborative approaches that strengthen communities and create lasting benefits for future generations.
The foundation principals wished to name the chair in living tribute to Klein, recognizing his “extraordinary leadership, while ensuring his commitment to research, mentorship and innovation continues through future generations.”
“Dr. Klein is one of the giants in electrophysiology,” said Frank Baylis, chair of the Gloria Baylis Foundation. “We want to honour him and make sure people know his name, what he’s accomplished and how important he’s been – not just to the Canadian ecosystem, but globally.”
The foundations also wanted to acknowledge the collaborative approach that helped establish London as a centre for heart rhythm research and innovation.
Kris Shah
“The greatest advances in health care begin with exceptional people working together,” said Kris Shah, president of the Shah Family Foundation. “Dr. Klein and his team have led the way to help patients with heart rhythm disorders. By investing in talented researchers and clinicians, we are helping to carry forward a legacy of meaningful research, innovation and collaboration that will improve patient care for generations to come.”
The London electrophysiology team played an important role in the growth of Baylis Medical, led by Baylis and Shah. The guidance and clinical insights from the LHRP over many years helped support the company’s research and development work in the field.
The new chair will help the LHRP increase its external research funding to design and run novel clinical trials that generate new scientific evidence to improve how arrhythmias are diagnosed and treated. A leading clinician-scientist will be recruited to help build research capacity and collaboration among researchers and trainees.
Baylis said it is gratifying knowing life-changing Canadian-based research and innovations will continue with support from the two foundations.
“The knowledge and changes we’ve seen in Dr. Klein’s career have been enormous, and the impact on people’s health, not just in London or Canada, but around the world, is tremendous,” he said. “We’re excited to see this impact continue through this chair.”
