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Climbing the ladder For Dr. Stuart Hutchison, the path to Calgary went through Toronto and up some of the world’s tallest peaks—including Mount Everest where he survived one the deadliest storms in the mountain’s history. He landed at the Faculty of Medicine, where KRISTA SYLVESTER caught up with him.
He’s climbed the tallest mountain peaks, he’s written several medical books and as the director of echocardiography at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, he’s happy to call Calgary home. “My colleagues here from physicians to nurses and technologists, they are all amazing,” beams Dr. Stuart Hutchison. “I worked with wonderful surgeons in Toronto and I work with amazing surgeons here in Calgary. I get the chance to be involved in truly advanced cardiac imaging.” A reknown cardiologist and avid mountain climber, Hutchison’s past is as intriguing as it is impressive. A McGill University graduate, Hutchison came to the Faculty of Medicine from the University of Toronto two years ago looking for new challenges. “We have a really excellent cardiology service here, it’s extremely efficient and it’s actually a lot of fun practicing here,” says Hutchison. “But there is room for growth and there is interest here to move towards a true multi modality imaging training program.” An enthusiastic educator, Hutchison says the creation of such a program, which would train residents in echocardiography, cardiac CT, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear imaging, would help move future cardiologists away from a onetest-for-everything approach.
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Aside from his educational endeavours, Hutchison would also like to see a wide range of equipment upgrades for the cardiology division, establish disease-specific scanning protocols, and develop links with sites in Edmonton and other areas of Alberta. After only a few minutes with Hutchison, though, it’s quite clear he truly enjoys teaching. He was awarded a Provincial Association of Residents Association Excellence in Teaching Award this summer, the first for cardiology in Calgary. He’s also written three cardiology books and has five more on the way, all directed towards meeting the needs of cardiology residents, who he says have been extremely validating to work with. So what does a cardiologist/author/educator do in his spare time? He climbs the tallest mountains in the world including Mount Everest, K2 and Mount McKinley, naturally. Hutchison’s brush with Everest in 1996 is one that has been told in a number of books, including Jon Krakauer’s bestseller Into thin Air; he survived an amazing ordeal that took the lives of eight people in one of the deadliest storms in the mountain’s history.
Fall 2010