Dr. Harry Rakowski
Cardiologist, Peter Munk Cardiac Centre | University Health Network
Toronto, ON, CANADA
Instrumental to international cardiology education
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Biography
Dr. Harry Rakowski graduated with an Honours MD from the University of Toronto in 1972. He did his postgraduate training in Toronto followed by a Research Fellowship at Stanford University.
A dedicated professor and practitioner, Dr. Rakowski has taught hundreds of cardiology residents. He has led an illustrious career of more than 35 years at Toronto General Hospital, where he has served as Director of Clinical Cardiology and Deputy Director for the renowned Peter Munk Cardiac Centre Program.
He has served as Chief Examiner in Cardiology, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Internationally he is the immediate past-President of the American Society of Echocardiography and past Chair of the Council of Cardiovascular Organizations, a prominent US cardiovascular leadership organization. He currently is the President of the National Board of Echocardiography; a US based testing organization for cardiologists and anesthesiologists as well as the Chair of the Innovation Committee at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre.
Dr. Rakowski is widely published, an international speaker and prolific scientist. He has helped write many guideline papers that have been instrumental in educating cardiologists internationally.
His research interests include hypertrophic cardiomyopathy a heart muscle condition that is the leading cause of sudden death in young adults. He currently heads a world class clinical and research program, which attracts patients from around the world for investigation and innovative management of this condition.
Dr. Rakowski has been a pioneer in the development and clinical use of echocardiography, the most important non-invasive cardiac imaging test.
Industry Expertise (8)
Health Care - Providers
Health Care - Facilities
Training and Development
Health and Wellness
Education/Learning
Advanced Medical Equipment
Research
Health Care - Services
Areas of Expertise (10)
Echocardiology
Medical Education
Medical Imaging
Internal Medicine
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
Exercise for Cardiac Patients
Interventional Cardiology
Heart Disease
Cardiology
Clinical Research
Education (1)
University of Toronto: MD (Hons), Medicine
Affiliations (4)
- National Board of Echocardiography : President
- University Health Network : Douglas Wigle Research Chair in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
- University Health Network Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Clinic: Director
- Peter Munk Cardiac Centre Innovation Committee: Chair
Media Appearances (3)
The World Cup and Heart Health
Longwoods online
2014-07-03
Dr. Harry Rakowski, a cardiologist at Peter Munk Cardiac Centre in Toronto, said contrary to popular belief, high-activity sports are not the main triggers for cardiac events. "If we look at sudden death during sports activities, it is usually high-impact sports, high-activity sports. In those patients, about 40 per cent of them have an underlying heart muscle disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy," he explained.
Health after retirement from high pressure jobs
Global News online
2014-04-11
Part of the shock of Jim Flaherty’s sudden death was that he resigned his high pressure job just three weeks ago, to take it a bit easier and spend more time with family. The sad reality is that slowing down can sometimes lead to an early death. Jennifer Tryon explains...
Why are high-performance athletes having heart attacks
The Canadian SADS Foundation online
2012-04-08
And if you're older and planning on running your first marathon, you may want to undergo a stress test, Dr. Rakowski says; people over 40 are more likely to have coronary artery disease. You'll run on a treadmill or ride a stationary bike to measure your heart rate and blood pressure while you perform at increasingly more difficult levels of exercise. Or you may have a nuclear stress test that looks at blood flow to the heart...
Event Appearances (2)
Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation Improves Left Ventricular Myocardial Mechanics in Normal and Abnormal Left Ventricular Function
Canadian Cardiovascular Conference Montreal, QB.
2013-10-17
Transcather Aortic Valve Implantation Improves Left Atrial Phasic Function by Speckle-Tracking Echocardiography
Canadian Cardiovascular Conference Montreal, QB.
2013-10-17
Articles (5)
ACC/AHA/ASE 2003 guideline update for the clinical application of echocardiography: summary article: a report of the American College of Cardiology/ …
Journal of the American College of Cardiology
2003-01-01
A new section on the use of intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is being added to update the guidelines published by the ...
Mutations in the gene for cardiac myosin-binding protein C and late-onset familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
New England Journal of Medicine
1998-01-01
Mutations in the gene for cardiac myosin-binding protein C account for approximately 15 percent of cases of familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The spectrum of disease-causing mutations and the associated clinical features of these gene defects are ...
Canadian consensus recommendations for the measurement and reporting of diastolic dysfunction by echocardiography
Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography
1996-01-01
Abnormalities of diastolic filling are increasingly recognized as a cause of symptoms and predictors of outcome in patients with most forms of heart disease. Noninvasive assessment of diastolic filling is possible in almost all patients, but accurate evaluation must relate ...
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy clinical spectrum and treatment
Circulation
1995-01-01
Although the pathology of HCM was described by two French pathologists in the mid 19th century 1 2 and by a German pathologist in the early 20th century, 3 it remained for the virtually simultaneous reports of Brock 4 and Teare, 5 some 37 years ago, to bring modern ...
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The importance of the site and the extent of hypertrophy. A review
Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases
1985-01-01
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a diverse clinical and pathophysiologic entity that involves principally the left ventricle and is caused by asymmetric or concentric hypertrophy of unknown cause. If asymmetric, the hypertrophy is usually greates in the ventricular ...
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