McMaster’s Dr. Salim Yusuf, ‘Wayne Gretzky of health research,’ wins $100,000 Killam Prize

An award that includes a $100,000 prize would seem to represent the top of the mountain in a career.

But Dr. Salim Yusuf has witnessed summits before.

The first was a lifetime ago, and a world away, when he couldn't call his family with his big news because they didn't own a telephone.

On Tuesday, McMaster University's renowned cardiologist and epidemiologist was named as one of five winners of the Killam Prize, awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts to scholars in the sciences and humanities.

It is always nice to be recognized," Yusuf told The Spectator, adding that past honours he has received did not always include a cheque, but were just as meaningful.

But the cash is sweet, too.

I'm not a saint, or a hermit," he said, chuckling softly, adding that he'd like to organize a big family trip to gather everyone where it all started for him.

It was more than four decades ago that Yusuf boarded a train 600 kilometres from his home in southwest India.

He was 23, and had spent three days visiting a university as part of the endgame in a process where he was vying to become a Rhodes Scholar, one of only two selected in the entire country.

At a luncheon to announce the winners, Yusuf and another candidate allowed themselves an extra beer as a consolation prize.

The other candidates were outstanding and we had ruled ourselves out," he said.

In his Rhodes application essay, Yusuf had cited his medical school internship field work, treating patients in rural Indian villages, as well as decontaminating well water that carried diseases.

He was studying medicine at the direction of his father. In India back then you did what your parents told you and there was no debate.

Yusuf had discovered that he was motivated to excel in school by a fear of failure. He tried to work twice as hard as anyone, believing he wouldn't succeed if he didn't.

But his father had surprised him, with his final words before Yusuf took the journey north in his Rhodes quest: Don't worry if you don't get it."

It was the first time in my life he said that," said Yusuf.

After the luncheon, it was impossible to get in touch with his parents before catching his train. There was no phone in his house; in 1970s India it could take three to four years to obtain a home telephone.

He had joyous news to bring back: he was a Rhodes Scholar.

My world had changed," said Yusuf.

Not long after that, it changed again, just as he was about to travel to the U.K. to begin his studies at Oxford University.

His father died from a heart attack at 56.

Yusuf had felt like he was only recently getting to know his father, who he placed on a pedestal.

Normally stoic in nature, he broke down and felt pain that never really left him.

He arrived at Oxford with the equivalent of $10 in his pocket, and felt apprehensive trying to navigate the variety of knives, forks, and spoons set on tables in the dining hall.

Yusuf gravitated toward an area of medicine that was severely lacking in research, prevention and treatment: heart disease.

At that point, he said, the only treatment available essentially was shocking a patient's failing heart back to life.

It was like a desert, there was not a single treatment that was clearly proven. So anything we did (in research) that was worthwhile became an oasis."

Struggling with anxiety that he would fail, and working with senior Oxford colleagues Peter Sleight and Richard Peto, Yusuf began to establish himself as an epidemiologist and researcher exploring the mysteries of a healthy heart, including studying the role of blood pressure medications called beta blockers in reducing the severity of heart attacks.

The trio conducted the first large clinical studies and drug trials on heart disease. Rather than collect extensive data from a small number of patients in one country, they collected less data from tens of thousands of patients across the globe.

You make the studies affordable and feasible by simplifying them," said Yusuf. You just measure what matters ... The three of us developed the concept of large trials and meta analysis."

In 1979 he married Wahida, a sociology graduate from a university in southwest India. Less than two years later, while completing his PhD at Oxford, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs.

Yusuf received toxic chemotherapy treatments, leaving side effects that lingered the rest of his life. Certain they would never be able to have biological children, the couple planned to adopt.

In 1984 he took a position conducting clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and in 1992 was recruited by McMaster University.

He was named director of cardiology at Mac, and later founded the university's Population Health Research Institute.

Among the projects he oversaw was the Interheart" study in 2004, that collected data from 52 countries and concluded that 90 per cent of heart attacks were due to nine risk factors.

An article in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology called Yusuf a pioneer in preventive cardiology" who was proving how culture and environment influence cardiovascular disease."

Yusuf's findings on occasion stirred controversy. He received blowback in the mid-2000s when the Pure" study involving 150,000 participants in 17 countries produced data that called into question whether salt and animal fat consumption were as damaging to the heart as nutritionists were suggesting.

Diet docs have Salim Yusuf in the crosshairs," read a headline in one article.

Yusuf sticks by the study's conclusions. He said eating for a healthy heart means moderation and balance, not extreme measures such as radically lowering salt intake, or eliminating meat from your diet altogether, adding that eating a small steak on occasion is not harmful.

Nutrition is a field where established thinking is largely based on poor data that has become dogma, and people spend their life defending it," he said.

Science only advances by challenging an idea, trying to set up experiments to prove it or disprove it ... You can't think of only publishing convenient conclusions."

He enjoys speaking about the relationships built working with investigators internationally, likening the bonds to an extended family.

Yusuf added that his Indian roots helped him bridge cultural divides when working with collaborators from multiple countries.

Martin McKee, a professor of public health in the U.K., was quoted in an article lauding Yusuf's leadership, and said: But working with him is exhausting!"

I am demanding of my colleagues, and myself," said Yusuf. I find myself exhausting, too."

Twenty years ago he was dubbed the Wayne Gretzky of health researchers in a story in The Hamilton Spectator, but he was just getting warmed up.

In the years since he has been recognized as Canada's most influential scientist, the world's second-hottest researcher," and been named to the Order of Canada, Canada's Medical Hall of Fame, and just last week won the World Heart Federation Lifetime Achievement Award, among other honours.

Meanwhile, his name has been a magnet for attracting research grants to McMaster.

Careers are built on good luck," he said. I've been fortunate to work with wonderful people, and McMaster's culture has helped me and my research."

Yusuf is 69, and said he will not retire so long as the work environment remains supportive.

But he has been reflecting more of late about the journey.

His British mentor, Sleight, died in 2020, at 94.

He often thinks about India, where his 94-year-old mother still lives, as well as his brother and sister.

He had long hoped to return to work there at some point, but never did.

Regret might be too strong a word for it. There is more a wistfulness."

He has been addicted to work, and success, and perhaps still driven by fear of failure. It has meant sacrificing time with his family.

Wahida, he said, has been a saint for raising the children so well.

Children: despite their fears of the ripple effect of his cancer treatments back in his 20s, he and Wahida conceived children. They have two daughters and a son.

Two of their children chose a career in medicine. They needed no directing from their father.

I was thinking the other day, on any journey the wind is at your back at times, and at other times there are headwinds," said Yusuf.

And in every life there is hardship and positives, you can't have one without the other. Would I take the whole package again? I would take the whole package."

Jon Wells is a feature writer at The Spectator. jwells@thespec.com