Dr Keyvan Karkouti MSc MD FRCPC obtained his MD at the University of Toronto in 1990. Following residency and fellowship training he joined the staff of the University Health Network (Toronto General Hospital) where he has been a clinician scientist since 1996. Dr Karkouti’s research is dedicated to better understanding and improving the management of bleeding and blood product use in cardiac surgery and his work has involved study of the prognostic importance of excessive blood loss, the risk-benefit profile of established blood conservation modalities, and the role of novel hemostatic agents.

His important contributions include the use of innovative approaches to observational data that has revised our understanding of the importance of operative blood loss. In addition, he has better defined the criteria for the use of an important novel hemostatic agent (recombinant Activated Factor VII), and was one of the first to detect important adverse effects associated with a drug (aprotinin) designed to reduce blood loss during cardiac surgery but which had been part of standard perioperative care. Since 2006, he has served on the Editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia.

Dr Karkouti’s research has been published in high-impact journals including Circulation, JAMA and Anesthesiology. He has been continuously funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research or the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario since 2002, and has received several awards, including several from the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society. He has been invited to speak at multiple international meetings, has served as an expert advisor to key government agencies, and served as a witness to a special FDA panel on aprotinin. He is an advisor to several important industry initiatives, and he and his colleagues have won significant industry-associated funding for their research. Dr Karkouti chairs the steering committee of a major research project examining a novel hemostatic agent (Activated Factor XIII).

Since 2008, Dr Karkouti has been Associate Professor in the Departments of Anesthesia and Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.