Directory

Finlay McAlister

Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Medicine Dept
Contact Overview Publications

Contact

Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Medicine Dept
Email
fmcalist@ualberta.ca
Phone
(780) 492-7387
Address
5-134c Clinical Sciences Building
11304 83 Ave NW
Edmonton AB
T6G 2G3

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

Outcomes research in hypertension heart failure perioperative care coronary artery disease clinical epidemiology methodology evidence-based medicine implementing evidence at the bedside methodology of trials systematic reviews

About

Personal Statement:

“The big payoff for me is the thought that my research might improve people’s health outcomes. I think anybody who does research wants the research to make an impact in the real world. I extend this to my teaching where I prefer to have a small group of learners with actual patients with real diseases and conditions.”

General internist and clinical researcher Dr. Finlay McAlister is a professor in the General Internal Medicine Division. He is widely recognized for his research on health outcomes, health services, hypertension and heart failure. He is an awarded educator whose contributions to learning range from improved physician guidelines for treating disease to one-on-one trainee teaching at patients’ bedsides.

Leadership and Collaborations:

Dr. McAlister is the lead for the Alberta Support for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR) Data Platform. He is past-president of the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine and past-chair, Outcomes Research Task Force for the Canadian Hypertension Education Program. He helped create national guidelines for hypertension treatment that are associated with high rates of hypertension control in Canada.



Clinical Interests

Dr. McAlister cares for patients on the General Internal Medicine teaching units in the University of Alberta Hospital and the Heart Function Clinic at the Mazankowski Heart Institute.

Research

Dr. McAlister spends 75 per cent of his time on health outcomes research. His focus is assessing interventions in care and in health services delivery and implementing ways to improve them.  He is a provincial leader in the use of large datasets in clinical research and patient-centred approaches to research and care. 

Dr. McAlister has published more than 450 peer-reviewed articles. 

Dr. McAlister has been widely recognized for his research with awards including: Merck Frosst/Aventis Chair in Patient Health Management, the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine Young Investigator Award, the Royal College Gold Medal in Research for Medicine from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada (2005), Senior Investigator Awards from the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine (2013) and Hypertension Canada (2013), and the Alberta Health Services Chair in Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (2012-2022).

Teaching

Dr. McAlister was awarded a 2015 Killam Annual Professorship by the University of Alberta for his contributions to educational excellence, research and the community.

Featured Publications

Trends in Uptake and Adherence to Oral Anticoagulation for Patients With Incident Atrial Fibrillation at High Stroke Risk Across Health Care Settings

Yogasundaram H., Dover D.C., Hawkins N.M., McAlister F.A., Goodman S.G., Ezekowitz J., Kaul P., Sandhu R.K.

Journal of the American Heart Association. 2022 August; 11 (15) 10.1161/JAHA.121.024868

Epidemiology of Worsening Heart Failure in a Population-based Cohort from Alberta, Canada: Evaluating Eligibility for Treatment With Vericiguat

SEPEHRVAND N., ISLAM S., DOVER D.C., KAUL P., MCALISTER F.A., ARMSTRONG P.W., EZEKOWITZ J.A.

JOURNAL OF CARDIAC FAILURE. 2022 August; 28 (8):1298-1308 10.1016/j.cardfail.2022.04.015

Relationship of frailty with excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic: a population-level study in Ontario, Canada

Wijeysundera H.C., Abdel-Qadir H., Qiu F., Manoragavan R., Austin P.C., Kapral M.K., Kwong J.C., Sun L.Y., Ross H.J., Udell J.A., Roifman I., Yu A.Y.X., Chu A., McAlister F.A., Lee D.S.

AGING CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH. 2022 July; 10.1007/s40520-022-02173-1

Clinical Phenotypes of Heart Failure across the spectrum of Ejection Fraction: A Cluster Analysis

Pishoy Goudaab, Wendimagegn Alemayehua, Sarah Rathwella, D. Ian Paterson, Todd Andersonc, Jason R. B. Dyck, Jonathan G. Howlettc, Gavin Y. Oudit, Finlay A. McAlister, Richard B. Thompson, Justin Ezekowitz, Alberta HEART Study Investigators

CURRENT PROBLEMS IN CARDIOLOGY. 2022 July; 47 (11):101337 10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2022.101337

Clinical risk, sociodemographic factors, and SARS-CoV-2 infection over time in Ontario, Canada

Udell J.A., Behrouzi B., Sivaswamy A., Chu A., Ferreira-Legere L.E., Fang J., Goodman S.G., Ezekowitz J.A., Bainey K.R., van Diepen S., Kaul P., McAlister F.A., Bogoch I.I., Jackevicius C.A., Abdel-Qadir H., Wijeysundera H.C., Ko D.T., Austin P.C., Lee D.S.

Scientific Reports. 2022 June; 12 (1) 10.1038/s41598-022-13598-z

Comparison of Mortality and Hospital Readmissions among Patients Receiving Virtual Ward Transitional Care vs Usual Postdischarge Care: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Chauhan U., McAlister F.A.

JAMA-Network OPEN. 2022 June; 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.19113

Predicting 30-Day Readmissions in Patients With Heart Failure Using Administrative Data: A Machine Learning Approach

Sharma V., KULKARNI V., MCALISTER F., EURICH D.E.A.N., KESHWANI S., SIMPSON S.H., VOAKLANDER D.O.N., SAMANANI S.

JOURNAL OF CARDIAC FAILURE. 2022 May; 28 (5):710-722 10.1016/j.cardfail.2021.12.004

The risk of death or unplanned readmission after discharge from a COVID-19 hospitalization in Alberta and Ontario

McAlister F.A., Dong Y., Chu A., Wang X., Youngson E., Quinn K.L., Verma A., Udell J.A., Yu A.Y.X., Razak F., Ho C., de Mestral C., Ross H.J., van Walraven C., Lee D.S.

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL. 2022 May; 194 (19):E666-E673 10.1503/cmaj.220272

Heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction: retrospective study of ejection fraction trajectory risk

Miller R.J.H., Nabipoor M., Youngson E., Kotrri G., Fine N.M., Howlett J.G., Paterson I.D., Ezekowitz J., McAlister F.A.

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CARDIOLOGY. 2022 April; 9 (3):1564-1573 10.1002/ehf2.13869

Identifying subgroups of adult high-cost health care users: a retrospective analysis

Wick J., Campbell D.J.T., McAlister F.A., Manns B.J., Tonelli M., Beall R.F., Hemmelgarn B.R., Stewart A., Ronksley P.E.

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL. 2022 April; 10 (2):E390-E399 10.9778/cmajo.20210265

Reduction of dietary sodium to less than 100 mmol in heart failure (SODIUM-HF): an international, open-label, randomised, controlled trial

Ezekowitz J.A., Colin-Ramirez E., Ross H., Escobedo J., Macdonald P., Troughton R., Saldarriaga C., Alemayehu W., McAlister F.A., Arcand J.A., Atherton J., Doughty R., Gupta M., Howlett J., Jaffer S., Lavoie A., Lund M., Marwick T., McKelvie R., Moe G., Pandey A.S., Porepa L., Rajda M., Rheault H., Singh J., Toma M., Virani S., Zieroth S., Ezekowitz J., McAlister F., Pandey A.S.

LANCET. 2022 April; 399 (10333):1391-1400 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00369-5

The impact of shifting demographics, variants of concern and vaccination on outcomes during the first 3 COVID-19 waves in Alberta and Ontario: a retrospective cohort study

McAlister F.A., Nabipoor M., Chu A., Lee D.S., Saxinger L., Bakal J.A.

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL. 2022 April; 10 (2):E400-E408 10.9778/cmajo.20210323

Changes in ischemic stroke presentations, management and outcomes during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta: a population study

Ganesh A., Stang J.M., McAlister F.A., Shlakhter O., Holodinsky J.K., Mann B., Hill M.D., Smith E.E.

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL. 2022 March; 194 (12):E444-E455 10.1503/CMAJ.211003

The MedSafer Study-Electronic Decision Support for Deprescribing in Hospitalized Older Adults: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial

McDonald E.G., Wu P.E., Rashidi B., Wilson M.G., Bortolussi-Courval É., Atique A., Battu K., Bonnici A., Elsayed S., Wilson A.G., Papillon-Ferland L., Pilote L., Porter S., Murphy J., Ross S.B., Shiu J., Tamblyn R., Whitty R., Xu J., Fabreau G., Haddad T., Palepu A., Khan N., McAlister F.A., Downar J., Huang A.R., MacMillan T.E., Cavalcanti R.B., Lee T.C.

JAMA Internal Medicine. 2022 March; 182 (3):265-273 10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.7429

Changes in outpatient care patterns and subsequent outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic: A retrospective cohort analysis from a single payer healthcare system

Finlay A. McAlister, Zoe Hsu, Yuan Dong, Carl van Walraven, Jeffrey A. Bakal

MedRxIV. 2022 March; https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.07.22272032

Bedtime versus morning use of antihypertensives for cardiovascular risk reduction (BedMed): protocol for a prospective, randomised, open-label, blinded end-point pragmatic trial

Garrison S.R., Kolber M.R., Allan G.M., Bakal J., Green L., Singer A., Trueman D.R., Mcalister F.A., Padwal R.S., Hill M.D., Manns B., Mcgrail K., O'neill B., Greiver M., Froentjes L.S., Manca D.P., Mangin D., Wong S.T., Maclean C., Kirkwood J.E.M., Mccracken R., Mccormack J.P., Norris C., Korownyk T.

BMJ Open. 2022 February; 12 (2) 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059711

Factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 test positivity in long-term care homes: A population-based cohort analysis using machine learning

Lee D.S., Wang C.X., McAlister F.A., Ma S., Chu A., Rochon P.A., Kaul P., Austin P.C., Wang X., Kalmady S.V., Udell J.A., Schull M.J., Rubin B.B., Wang B.

Lancet Reg Health Am (New Journal). 2022 February; 6 10.1016/j.lana.2021.100146

The Incidence and Prevalence of Cardiac Amyloidosis in a Large Community-Based Cohort in Alberta, Canada

Sepehrvand N., Youngson E., Fine N., Venner C.P., Paterson I., Bakal J., Westerhout C., Mcalister F.A., Kaul P., Ezekowitz J.A.

JOURNAL OF CARDIAC FAILURE. 2022 February; 28 (2):237-246 10.1016/j.cardfail.2021.08.016

Chloride in Heart Failure: The Neglected Electrolyte

Zandijk A.J.L., van Norel M.R., Julius F.E.C., Sepehrvand N., Pannu N., McAlister F.A., Voors A.A., Ezekowitz J.A.

JACC-Heart Failure. 2021 December; 9 (12):904-915 10.1016/j.jchf.2021.07.006

Predictors of mortality among long-term care residents with SARS-CoV-2 infection

Lee D.S., Ma S., Chu A., Wang C.X., Wang X., Austin P.C., McAlister F.A., Kalmady S.V., Kapral M.K., Kaul P., Ko D.T., Rochon P.A., Schull M.J., Rubin B.B., Wang B.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2021 December; 69 (12):3377-3388 10.1111/jgs.17425

The Introduction of Direct Oral Anticoagulants Has Not Resolved Treatment Gaps for Frail Patients With Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation

Orlandi M., Dover D.C., Sandhu R.K., Hawkins N.M., Kaul P., McAlister F.A.

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY. 2021 December; 38 (1):77-84 10.1016/j.cjca.2021.09.021

Statins and sars-cov-2 infection: Results of a population-based prospective cohort study of 469 749 adults from 2 canadian provinces

McAlister F.A., Wang T., Wang X., Chu A., Goodman S.G., van Diepen S., Jackevicius C.A., Kaul P., Udell J., Ko D.T., Kwong J.C., Austin P.C., Lee D.S.

Journal of the American Heart Association. 2021 November; 10 (21) 10.1161/JAHA.121.022330

Changes in ischemic stroke presentations and associated workflow during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A population study in Alberta, Canada

Aravind Ganesh, Jillian M. Stang, Finlay A. McAlister, Oleksandr Shlakhter, Jessalyn K. Holodinsky, Balraj Mann, Michael D. Hill, Eric E. Smith

Med Rx iV, Preprint Server for Health Sciences. 2021 October; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.04.21264529

The predictive ability of EQ-5D-3L compared to the LACE index and its association with 30-day post-hospitalization outcomes.

Al Sayah F, McAlister FA, Ohinmaa A, Majumdar SR, Johnson JA.

QUALITY OF LIFE RESEARCH. 2021 September; 30 (9):2583-2590 10.1007/s11136-021-02835-z.

Prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease in a Population-Based Cohort of High-Cost Healthcare Services Users

Kaul P., Klassen N., Dover D.C., Sepehrvand N., Sandhu R.K., van Diepen S., Bainey K., Sean McMurtry M., Welsh R.C., Ezekowitz J.A., Goodman S.G., Armstrong P.W., McAlister F.A.

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY. 2021 September; 4 (2):180-188 10.1016/j.cjco.2021.09.017

Cardiac reverse remodeling over time and health status in patients with chronic heart failure. ESC Heart Failure 2021

Wang K, Youngson E, Bakal JA, Thomas J, McAlister FA, Oudit G

ESC Heart Failure. 2021 August; 8 (4):3106-3118 10.1002/ehf2.13417

Impact of atrial fibrillation case volume in the emergency department on early and late outcomes of patients with new atrial fibrillation.

Hawkins NM, Youngson E, Sandhu RK, Scheuermeyer FX, Ezekowitz JA, Kaul P, McAlister FA.

ANNALS OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE. 2021 August; 78 (2):242-252 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2021.03.014

LESSONS FROM THE COVID-19 THIRD WAVE IN CANADA: THE IMPACT OF VARIANTS OF CONCERN AND SHIFTING DEMOGRAPHICS

Finlay A. McAlister, Majid Nabipoor, Anna Chu, Douglas S. Lee, Lynora Saxinger, Jeffrey A. Bakal on behalf of the CORONA Collaboration

Med Rx iV, Preprint Server for Health Sciences. 2021 August; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.27.21261857

Validity of different dose reduction criteria for apixaban

Hawkins NM, Er L, Sandhu RK, Kaul P, McAlister FA, Levin A, Andrade JG

AMERICAN HEART JOURNAL. 2021 August; 238 doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2021.03.004

Prior adherence to statins is a predictor of subsequent adherence and persistence to oral, but not parenteral, osteoporosis medications

Gupta A., Lin M., McAlister F.A., Ye C.

Journal of Bone and Mineral Metabolism. 2021 July; 39 (4):712-718 10.1007/s00774-021-01216-3

Implications of the covid-19 pandemic for cardiovascular disease and risk factor management.

Lau D, McAlister FA*.

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY. 2021 May; 37 (5):722-732 10.1016/j.cjca.2020.11.001

Is There Any Interaction Between Sex and Renal Function Change During Hospital Stay in Patients Hospitalized With Acute Heart Failure?

Florine E C Julius, Margje R VAN Norel, Arietje J L Zandijk, Sarah Rathwell, Cynthia Westerhout, Finlay A McAlister 3, Nariman Sepehrvand, Adriaan A Voors, Justin A Ezekowitz

JOURNAL OF CARDIAC FAILURE. 2021 May; 27 (9):934-941 10.1016/j.cardfail.2021.05.005

Which Adults Presenting for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Testing Are Most Likely to Produce a Positive Swab Result?: A Population-Based Cohort of 15,132 Adults From Alberta, Canada

Finlay A McAlister, Tara A Whitten, James A King, Jeffrey A Bakal.

CHEST. 2021 May; 159 (5):1803-1806 10.1016/j.chest.2020.11.043

Health Services: Informing COVID-19 vaccination priorities based on the prevalence of risk factors among adults in Canada

McAlister F.A., Bushnik T., Leung A.A., Saxinger L.

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL. 2021 April; 193 (17):E617-E621 10.1503/cmaj.210529

Visit-to-visit blood pressure variability is common in primary care practice: retrospective cohort study of 221,803 adults.

McAlister FA*, Lethebe BC, Leung AA, Padwal RS, Williamson T

PLoS One. 2021 April; 16 (4):e0248362 10.1371/journal.pone.0248362

Lipid Testing, Lipid-Modifying Therapy, and PCSK9 (Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin-Kexin Type 9) Inhibitor Eligibility in 27 979 Patients with Incident Acute Coronary Syndrome

Sarak B., Savu A., Kaul P., McAlister F.A., Welsh R.C., Yan A.T., Goodman S.G.

Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2021 April; 14 (4):445-454 10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.120.006646

Informing COVID-19 vaccination priorities based on the prevalence of risk factors among adults in Canada

Finlay A. McAlister, Tracey Bushnik, Alexander A. Leung and Lynora Saxinger

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL. 2021 April; 193 (17):E617-E621 https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.210529

Elevated Blood Pressures Are Common in the Emergency Department but Are They Important? A Retrospective Cohort Study of 30,278 Adults

Finlay A McAlister, Erik Youngson, Brian H Rowe.

ANNALS OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE. 2021 April; 77 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2020.11.005

Machine-Learning, Predictive Analytics, and the Emperor's New Clothes: Why Artificial Intelligence hasn't yet Replaced Conventional Approaches

Colin Gw Weaver, Finlay A McAlister.

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY. 2021 March; S0828-282X (21):00134-3 10.1016/j.cjca.2021.03.003

The trauma of hospitalization in medical in-patients and association with post-discharge outcomes.

Raghuveer A, Youngson E, Mathura P, Kassam N, McAlister FA*

JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE. 2021 February; 36 (9):2579-2584 10.1007/s11606-020-06427-4

Real world data on the concurrent use of P-glycoprotein or Cytochrome 3A4 drugs and Non-vitamin K Antagonist Oral Anticoagulants in non-valvular atrial fibrillation

Sandhu RK, Islam S, Dover D, Ezekowitz JA, McAlister FA, Hawkins NM, Kaul P.

European Heart Journal Quality Care. 2021 January; 22 10.1093/ehjqcco/qcab002

Symptoms associated with a positive result for a swab for SARS-CoV-2 infection among children in Alberta

King JA, Whitten TA, Bakal JA, McAlister FA

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL. 2021 January; 193 (1):E1-E9 10.1503/cmaj.202065

Is There a Sex Gap in Surviving an Acute Coronary Syndrome or Subsequent Development of Heart Failure?

Justin A Ezekowitz, Anamaria Savu, Robert C Welsh, Finlay A McAlister, Shaun G Goodman, Padma Kaul.

CIRCULATION. 2020 December; 142 (23):2231-2239 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.048015

Preoperative levels of natriuretic peptides and the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation after noncardiac surgery: A prospective cohort study

Szczeklik W, LeManach Y, Fronczek J, Polok K, Conen D, McAlister FA, Srinathan S, Alonso-Coello P, Biccard B, Heels-Ansdell D, Gorka J, Devereaux PJ.

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL. 2020 December; 192 (49):E1715-E1722 10.1503/cmaj.200840

Association Between HbA1c Levels and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: A Secondary Analysis of the TECOS Randomized Clinical Trial.

McAlister FA*, Zheng Y, Westerhout CM, Buse JB, Green JB, McGuire DK, et al

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HEART FAILURE. 2020 November; 22 (11):2026-2034 10.1002/ejhf.1958