1. JAMES E. CALVIN, MD, MBA, FRCPC, FACC, FACP
BIOSKETCH
Beginning with his first position as Chief ICU Resident at Western University,
next as an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada and later
at Rush University Medical Center as a Professor of Medicine, Dr. Calvin’s
interests have been eclectic. His first research studies of cardiac function were
landmark. He was the first to demonstrate the lack of correlation between end-
diastolic pressure and volume, indices of preload in critically ill patients; the left
ventricular afterload reducing effects of positive end-respiratory pressure; and
the incidence of left ventricular dysfunction during sepsis by measuring ejection
fraction in a critically ill patient using nuclear gated imaging. He was awarded
the Young Investigator Award in 1986 for his studies in this area and the
Internal Medicine Award in 1988 from the Society of Critical Care Medicine. It was also as the Director of
the Coronary Care Unit at the Ottawa Heart Institute that his interests in administration took hold. He held
the position of Director of Technical Services at the Heart Institute in the 1980’s and was asked to become
the Vice Chairman of the newly formed Working Group on Critical Care Services for the Ministry of Health
of Ontario in 1989.
Dr. Calvin returned to the United States in 1991 to become the first and founding Director of the CCU at
Rush University, and turned his interests toward clinical research in acute coronary syndromes (ACS). He
published the first validated risk patient stratification model in acute coronary syndromes and updated this
model with the addition of serum markers. His model also predicted resource utilization and outcome.
Several of his papers have focused on the optimal timing and duration of acute therapy in ACS. More
importantly, he demonstrated the value of providing decision-support to treating physicians in the form of
reminders to improve both quality and short-term outcome. He was a Co-PI of the Chicago site of the
NIH-sponsored ENRICHD trial which turned his attention to psychosocial risk factors in coronary artery
disease. This large-scale trial confirmed depression as a major risk factor in the post-MI patient but failed
to detect a benefit from cognitive behavior therapy on mortality. More recently, Dr. Calvin has been
involved in improving quality of care by improving physician behavior when prescribing therapy for acute
coronary syndrome patients and improving patient behavior by teaching self-management tasks in chronic
heart failure.
He acted as a steering committee member of the CRUSADE registry and was a Co-PI of the NIH-
sponsored Heart Failure Adherence and Retention Trial (HART) which looked at the value of teaching
self-management techniques to heart failure patients in an outpatient setting. The benefit appeared
limited to the economically disadvantaged. In all these initiatives, Dr. Calvin has coupled his research
interests to improve patient care with great adaptability and innovative thinking. He has served as the
Chairman of Adult Cardiology at Stroger Hospital of Cook County learning firsthand the challenges of the
public sector, Director of the Division of Cardiology and Herrick Professor of Cardiology at Rush. After
completing his MBA at the University of Tennessee, he was appointed the Richard Ivey Chair of Medicine
at Western University in November 2013 where he has combined departmental and hospital leadership
roles with his research interests in chronic disease management of heart failure and quality improvement.
He currently serves as Treasurer and President-Elect of the Canadian Association of Professors of
Medicine.