Our History

The origins of the EPICARE Center can be traced back to Dalhousie University, where it functioned for over a quarter of a century under the name of the Heart Disease Research Center. The Center was formed with the support of the Nova Scotia Heart Foundation, and the Dalhousie University Medical School.

In 1990 the Center moved to Edmonton Alberta and was renamed the EPICORE Center. The Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta, the University of Alberta, and the University of Alberta Hospital supported the evolving center.

The Center found its final resting place at Wake Forest University Medical School, in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and was renamed the EPICARE Center. The center continues the role as an international resource for national health surveys, epidemiological studies and multicenter clinical trials in computer analysis and classification of resting, exercise and ambulatory electrocardiograms.

Through its experience and expertise in ECG analysis, the Center plays a vital role in many aspects of clinical trials, such as the establishment of the incidence of non-fatal endpoints, monitoring trends between treatment groups, detection of adverse effects of cardioactive drugs, and comparative assessment of trends in cardiovascular disease morbidity between contrasting populations. The research arm of the EPICARE Center conducts a broad spectrum of basic and applied research in Electrocardiology dedicated to investigate the evolution of the cardiac excitation and repolarization processes both through the normal lifetime and aging, and through aberrations during various disease conditions.