Harkness Project Title: International Variations in Rates of Carotid Endarterectomy

Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Jack Tu, a 2003–04 Canadian Associate of the Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy, currently holds a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research at the University of Toronto. He is a senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and a Professor of Medicine, Public Health Sciences, Health Policy, Management, & Evaluation at the University of Toronto, as well as a staff physician in the division of general internal medicine at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Science Centre. His research interests include quality of acute myocardial infarction care, quality of carotid endarterectomy care, risk assessment in cardiac surgery, effectiveness of congestive heart failure guidelines in Ontario and international comparisons of health care systems. He initiated and now oversees the Canadian Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Team, a national initiative to measure and improve the quality of cardiac care in Canada, involving 30 investigators from across Canada. Tu serves on numerous health care committees and supervises students completing their master or doctorate theses. He has lectured to research associates at conferences in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Japan. In 1998, he was granted a Medical Research Council of Canada Scholar award. He earned his M.D. from the University of Western Ontario, M.S. in clinical epidemiology from the University of Toronto, and Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard University.

Project: Tu conducted an international comparison on temporal changes in the rates of carotid surgery – a procedure demonstrated in the 1990s to be effective in reducing risk of stroke – in eight jurisdictions (Ontario, Québec from Canada; the U.S.; Oxford, England; Perth, Australia; Norway; Finland; Sweden; and Israel).  He used administrative databases from each region to calculate population-based rates.

Career Activity Since Fellowship

• Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research – Tier I, Ottawa, ON, 2006
• Canadian Cardiovascular Society Robert E. Beamish Award, Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, 2005
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research Knowledge Translation Award (National/International level) – Canadian Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Team, 2005
• Career Investigator Award, Health and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, 2005
• Professor, Department of Medicine, Public Health Science and Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation University of Toronto, 2004

Current Positions:

• Professor, Department of Medicine, Health Science, and Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto
• Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research, University of Toronto
• Senior Scientist, Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences

(Updated August 2010)

E-Mail: tu@ices.on.ca

Harkness-Related Publications

Tu JV, Donovan LR, Lee DS, et al. “Effectiveness of Public Report Cards for Improving the Quality of Cardiac Care: The EFFECT Study: A Randomized Trial,” JAMA 2009: 302(21): 2330-2337.

Willcox S, Seddon M, Dunn S, Tudor Edwards R,Pearse J, TU JV. "Measuring and reducing wait times: a cross-national comparison of strategies." Health Affairs 2007; 26:1078–87.

Ko DT, Krumholz HM, Wang Y, Foody JM, Masoudi FA, Havranek EP, You JJ, Alter DA, Stukel TA, Newman AM, TU JV. "Regional differences in process of care and outcomes for older acute myocardial infarction patients in the United States and Ontario, Canada." Circulation 2007; 115(2):196–203.

Ko DT, Austin PC, Chan BTB, TU JV. "Quality of care of international and Canadian medical graduates in acute myocardial infarction." Arch Intern Med 2005; 165:458–463.

Ko DT, TU JV, Masoudi FA, Wang Y, Havranek, EP, Rathore SS, Newman AM, Donovan LR, Lee DS, Foody JM MD, Krumholz HM. "Quality of care and outcomes of heart failure patients hospitalized in the United States and Canada." Arch Intern Med 2005; 165:2486–2492.