Dr. Thais Coutinho received her medical degree from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, in 2004, and completed residency and fellowship training in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Vascular Medicine, advanced Echocardiography and Research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, in 2013.

Upon graduating, Dr. Coutinho joined the University of Ottawa Heart Institute as a Clinician-Scientist.  In 2017, she was appointed Chief of the Division of Prevention and Rehabilitation and Chair of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Centre.  She is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Coutinho has addressed audiences at many national and international meetings, and has published several high impact manuscripts in the field of Cardiovascular Diseases.  She served as Co-Chair of the first (2016) and second (2018) Canadian Women’s Heart Health Summit, the largest conference in the world dedicated exclusively to the cardiovascular health of women.

Dr. Coutinho has received numerous awards, including the American Heart Association’s Women in Cardiology Trainee (2010) and Young Investigator (2011) Awards, the American College of Cardiology’s Young Investigator Award (2nd place, 2012), the Mayo Clinic’s Summerskill Research Award and Cardiovascular Division Outstanding Achievement Award (2013), and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society’s Young Investigator Award (2015).

Dr. Coutinho’s research program focuses on arterial health, with a special emphasis on arterial stiffness and its role on the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. She focuses on sex differences in arterial aging, and how it may help explain sex differences in cardiovascular diseases. To pursue these investigations, she holds several research grants, including an Early Research Leaders Grant and a Grant-in-Aid from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, as well as a Clinician Scientist Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.