Salim Yusuf, doctor, researcher, and visionary.
Highlights:
- Dr. Salim Yusuf, a renowned cardiologist and researcher, has been a key figure in global health, with a career spanning from clinical care to groundbreaking research.
- His journey started in India, where he became interested in research while addressing waterborne diseases in remote communities through water chlorination.
- Dr. Salim Yusuf emphasizes the synergy between being a good clinician and a good researcher, highlighting the importance of research in advancing medicine.
- He has contributed to medical research across various roles, including his leadership at the National Institutes of Health and the World Heart Federation.
- Dr. Yusuf’s work demonstrates the vast potential within the medical profession to address complex challenges, from basic sciences to social issues, and continues to inspire further discoveries in healthcare.
It was in September 2021, during the pandemic, that I went to visit Dr. Salim Yusuf at the facilities of the Population Health Research Institute in Canada, an institution he has been leading since its founding in 1999.
I was an accidental researcher.
Salim Yusuf
After overcoming the barriers of the pandemic with PCR tests, flight permits, and many face masks, our meeting became a window into the life of a visionary: one of the most cited researchers in cardiology worldwide. “I was an accidental researcher,” Dr. Yusuf explained. At a time when global health was at the forefront of everyone’s minds, this close conversation highlighted how dedication and commitment can make a difference in the fight against large-scale diseases.
We saw more than a hundred patients in the morning, and most of the people had waterborne diseases.
Salim Yusuf
Salim had an unusual and quite international path in his professional training, starting in India… After studying Medicine at St. John’s Medical College in Bangalore, he spent months visiting remote communities in India. “We saw more than a hundred patients in the morning…,” he recalls, “and most of the people had waterborne diseases.” It was then that his fascination with research was born. He embarked on a project to assess the quality of water in wells to combat the diseases affecting the population. The solution was simple: water chlorination. Salim reflects on this process: “Do you call this research, or do you call it clinical care?” From his point of view, it’s not a binary choice but a continuum. He went from being a full-time researcher to wanting to return to clinical care and eventually found a way to combine both passions. Part of the key to being a successful clinician is research. “A good researcher can be a good clinician,” he states.
Do you call this research, or do you call it clinical care?
Salim Yusuf
Advancements in medicine are the result of contributions that span from basic sciences to clinical practice, through population observations, innovations in engineering, and also social issues. During his work on tea plantations in India, the doctor found that more women were opting for tubal ligation as a contraceptive method than men choosing vasectomy. This imbalance was not due to differences in medical complexity but rather rooted in social concerns: men feared stigma if their extramarital relationships led to pregnancies after vasectomy. This social context is explained by Octavio Paz in his 1995 essay “Vislumbres de la India,” where he highlighted that “the kinship rules of each caste are very strict and complex.”
A good researcher can be a good clinician.
Salim Yusuf
From his Rhodes scholarship at the University of Oxford to his leadership at the National Institutes of Health in the United States and his presidency at the World Heart Federation, as well as his contribution to the Population Health Research Institute, where he has managed to involve over 1.5 million people in 102 countries, Dr. Salim Yusuf has made a significant mark in medical research. Undoubtedly, he makes us ponder the broad possibilities that exist for the medical profession. How many challenges are yet to be discovered? There are still many.
