Paul C. Hébert
MD, MHSc, FRCPC, FCAHS
Senior Investigator
Full Professor
University of Ottawa
Palliative Care Physician
Bruyère Health
Adjunct Scientist
CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM)
About:
Dr. Paul Hébert is a clinician scientist, health leader as well as a practicing palliative care and former critical care physician. He is a Bruyère Health scientist as well as a full professor at the University of Ottawa and previously at the Université de Montréal. He held the Héma-Québec – Bayer Chair in Transfusion Medicine (2016-2022) and was formerly the Chair of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group (2016-2020).
As a researcher, he is best known for major resuscitation and transfusion trials. In particular, he led a ground-breaking trial entitled, "Transfusion Requirements in Critical Care (TRICC)," published in the New England Journal of Medicine (1999). This study demonstrated that a restrictive approach to the care of critically ill patients (i.e., giving less blood) was certainly no worse than, and was possibly superior to, giving more red cells. This study decreased blood use in acute care settings worldwide. Many other basic and clinical blood studies followed including a recent study again published in the NEJM demonstrating that patients suffering from a myocardial infarction are one of the only patients who need more blood rather than less.
He has helped shape the national scientific and health agenda through various leadership roles. From 2007 to 2011 he was Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), and from 2008 to 2010, he was the Executive Director and strategic lead for the Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR).
Dr. Hébert has conducted research in both critically ill adults and children. His current research interests include palliative care, aging in place, social isolation and loneliness and long-term care. To do so, he secured over $65 million in research project funding. These investments have resulted in excess of 480 articles in peer reviewed journals (16 articles in NEJM, 13 in JAMA, 3 in The Lancet, 7 in Annals of Internal Medicine and 9 in BMJ). These projects and publications would not have been possible without the support of the Canadian Critical Trials Group, the help and support of literally thousands of patients and families, nurses, physicians and researchers from around the globe. He is most proud of the young Faculty from several universities that he has had the pleasure of mentoring from whom he has learned a great deal.
Dr. Hébert is a Fellow of the Canadian Academies of Health Science. He also was the recipient of a number of career awards including the Landsteiner-Alter award for his groundbreaking work in transfusion medicine.
Research Interests:
Transfusion and resuscitation, frailty, palliative care and social prescribing, clinical research, evaluative epidemiology.
Select Publications:
Fergusson DA, Hébert PC, Mazer CD, Fremes S, Macadams C, Murkin JM, Teoh K, Duke PC, Arellano R, Blajchman MA, Bussieres JS, Cote D, Karski J, Martineau R, Robblee JA, Rodger M, Wells G, Cote D, Pretorius R: the BART Investigators. (2008). A comparison of Aprotinin and Lysine analogues in high-risk cardiac surgery. New England Journal of Medicine.
Carrier FM, Cooper HA, Portela GT, Bertolet M, Lemesle G, Prochaska M, Kim S, Alexander JH, Crozier I, Ducrocq G, Quadros AS, Bagai A, Dracoulakis M, Madan M, Brooks MM, Carson JL, Hébert PC; MINT Investigators. (2004). Anemia Acuity Effect on Transfusion Strategies in Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Secondary Analysis of the MINT Trial. JAMA Network Open.
Portela GT, Carson JL, Swanson SA, Alexander JH, Hébert PC, Goodman SG, Steg PG, Bertolet M, Strom JB, Fergusson DA, Simon T, White HD, Cooper HA, Abbott JD, Rao SV, Chaitman BR, Fordyce CB, Lopes RD, Daneault B, Brooks MM; MINT Investigators; MINT Investigators*. (2024). Effect of Four Hemoglobin Transfusion Threshold Strategies in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction and Anemia : A Target Trial Emulation Using MINT Trial Data. Annals of Internal Medicine.
Carson JL, Brooks MM, Hébert PC, Goodman SG, Bertolet M, Glynn SA, Chaitman BR, Simon T, Lopes RD, Goldsweig AM, DeFilippis AP, Abbott JD, Potter BJ, Carrier FM, Rao SV, Cooper HA, Ghafghazi S, Fergusson DA, Kostis WJ, Noveck H, Kim S, Tessalee M, Ducrocq G, de Barros E Silva PGM, Triulzi DJ, Alsweiler C, Menegus MA, Neary JD, Uhl L, Strom JB, Fordyce CB, Ferrari E, Silvain J, Wood FO, Daneault B, Polonsky TS, Senaratne M, Puymirat E, Bouleti C, Lattuca B, White HD, Kelsey SF, Steg PG, Alexander JH; MINT Investigators. (2023). Restrictive or Liberal Transfusion Strategy in Myocardial Infarction and Anemia. New England Journal of Medicine.
Hébert PC. FOR THE TRICC INVESTIGATORS AND THE CANADIAN CRITICAL CARE TRIALS GROUP. Transfusion Requirements in Critical Care: A multicentre controlled clinical trial. 1998 Yearbook of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (book chapter), ed. J.L. Vincent, published by Springer.
Mowbray FI, Turcotte L, Strum RP, de Wit K, Griffith LE, Worster A, Foroutan F, Heckman G, Hébert P, Schumacher C, Jones A, Mercier E, Gayowsky A, Costa AP. (2023). Prognostic association between frailty and post-arrest health outcomes in patients receiving home care: a population-based retrospective cohort study. Resuscitation.
Mowbray FI, Jones A, Strum RP, Turcotte L, Foroutan F, de Wit K, Worster A, Griffith LE, Hébert P, Heckman G, Ko DT, Schumacher C, Gayowsky A, Costa AP. (2022). Prognosis of cardiac arrest in home care clients and nursing home residents: A population-level retrospective cohort study. Resuscitation Plus.
Turcotte L, Heckman G, Hébert P, Weir J, Mulla R, Hirdes JP. (2022). Qualité des soins dans les établissements de soins de longue durée canadiens accueillant différents groupes linguistiques. Santé publique.
Welch V, Ghogomu E, Barbeau V, Dowling S, Doyle R, Beveridge E, Boulton E, Desai P, Huang J, Elmestekawy N, Hussain T, Wadhwani A, Boutin S, Haitas N, Kneale D, Salzwedel DM, Simard R, Hébert P, Mikton C. (2022). Digital interventions to reduce social isolation and loneliness in older adults: An evidence and gap map. SocArXiv.
Heckman GA, Hirdes JP, Hébert P, Costa A, Onder G, Declercq A, Nova A, Chen J, McKelvie RS. (2021). Assessments of heart failure and frailty-related health instability provide complementary and useful information for home-care planning and prognosis. Canadian Journal of Cardiology.
Contact:
phebert@bruyere.org