One of the world’s top neurologists and leader in stroke treatment
After obtaining his medical degree at the Albany Medical College in 1975, Dr. Hakim chose to focus his research on strokes, an unpopular area of study at the time. Completing his residency at the Montreal Neurological Institute and later becoming a professor at McGill University, he continued his stroke research using animal models that mimicked stroke conditions. Later, as Director of the Imaging facility at the Montreal Neurological Institute, he and his colleagues studied patients at various stages of their stroke. Through his work and study at McGill, Dr. Hakim has advanced understanding of the process and damage caused by strokes, which in turn has led to improved knowledge of the types of treatment needed for stroke patients and the crucial timing of such interventions. Later, as head of Neurology at the Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa, he put these ideas into practise through his leadership of the Canadian Stroke Network and its development of the Canadian Stroke Strategy.