David Alter

Dr. Alter maintains an active community cardiology practice in Milton Ontario (Milton Cardiac Care) and is the founder of a social purpose organization called Vigour Projects, whose mission is to improve the health of communities through music.
Dr. Alter's research spans across many disciplines including cardiovascular health services and outcomes, clinical epidemiology and social determinants, cardiac rehabilitation and more recently, music and medicine. He has published over 125 scholarly peer-reviewed papers in prestigious journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Alter has also received funding from various agencies including the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.
Baseline risk has greater influence over behavioral attrition on the real-world clinical effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation.
J Clin Epidemiol. 2016 Apr 28;
Biswas A, Oh PI, Faulkner GE, Alter DA
Development of the Health Incentive Program Questionnaire (HIP-Q) in a cardiac rehabilitation population.
Transl Behav Med. 2015 Dec;5(4):443-459
Mitchell MS, Goodman JM, Alter DA, Oh PI, Faulkner GE
Delays in Referral and Enrolment Are Associated With Mitigated Benefits of Cardiac Rehabilitation After Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery.
Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2015 Nov 10;
Marzolini S, Blanchard C, Alter DA, Grace SL, Oh PI
Observing temporal trends in cardiac rehabilitation from 1996 to 2010 in Ontario: characteristics of referred patients, programme participation and mortality rates.
BMJ Open. 2015;5(11):e009523
Grace SL, Oh PI, Marzolini S, Colella T, Tan Y, Alter DA
Merits and Pitfalls of Using Observational "Big Data" to Inform Our Understanding of Socioeconomic Outcome Disparities.
J Am Coll Cardiol. 2015 Oct 27;66(17):1898-900
Alter DA
The Feasibility of Financial Incentives to Increase Exercise Among Canadian Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients.
J Cardiopulm Rehabil Prev. 2015 Sep 22;
Mitchell MS, Goodman JM, Alter DA, Oh PI, Leahey TM, Faulkner GE
The Incidence of Major Cardiovascular Events in Immigrants to Ontario, Canada: The CANHEART Immigrant Study.
Circulation. 2015 Aug 31;
Tu JV, Chu A, Rezai MR, Guo H, Maclagan LC, Austin PC, Booth GL, Manuel DG, Chiu M, Ko DT, Lee DS, Shah BR, Donovan LR, Sohail QZ, Alter DA
Synchronized personalized music audio-playlists to improve adherence to physical activity among patients participating in a structured exercise program: a proof-of-principle feasibility study.
Sports Med Open. 2015;1(1):7
Alter DA, O'Sullivan M, Oh PI, Redelmeier DA, Marzolini S, Liu R, Forhan M, Silver M, Goodman JM, Bartel LR
Prognosis After Maternal Placental Events and Revascularization: PAMPER study.
Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2015 Aug 14;
Ray JG, Booth GL, Alter DA, Vermeulen MJ
Sedentary Time and Risk for Mortality.
Ann Intern Med. 2015 Jun 16;162(12):875-6
Biswas A, Alter DA

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Senior Scientist, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (TRI)

Senior Scientist, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto
Cross appointment to the Department of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto
Adjunct Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital