Dr. Antoine Hakim is considered one of the world’s top neurologists and a leader in stroke treatment. He is a Senior Scientist Emeritus with the Neuroscience Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2013 for “changing the face of stroke treatment and prevention in Canada.” He pioneered the fight against stroke and changed the thinking around this disease.
Dr. Hakim began his medical career in 1976 at the Montreal Neurological Institute. In 1992, he moved to Ottawa to become chair of the University of Ottawa’s Neurology Department and director of the university’s Neuroscience Research Institute.
He was instrumental in the creation of the Canadian Stroke Network and championed the development of a nation-wide Canada Stroke Strategy in 2005. This helped close the gap between what was known to be effective in stroke prevention and rehabilitation and what was actually done in practice.
By 2007, he was Chair of the European Stroke Network’s External Scientific Review Committee and Chair of the Best Practice Guidelines Subcommittee of the World Stroke Organization.
In 2021, Dr. Hakim, along with researchers at the University of Ottawa’s Brain and Mind Research Institute, developed a web resource to educate the public about dementia prevention.
Dr. Hakim has received many honours during his career including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Stroke Association in 2007. That same year, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada. Some of his other awards include the Dr. J. David Grimes Research Career Achievement Award from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, and the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award in 2017, considered by many to be “the baby Nobel,” for his outstanding research into strokes.
