Dr. E. Douglas Wigle graduated as Gold Medalist from the University of Toronto Medical School in 1953. After 7 years of postgraduate training in England, the United States and Canada, Dr. Wigle joined the staff of the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto as a Cardiologist in 1960. He became a Full Professor in the Department in 1972. That same year he was appointed Director of the Division of Cardiology, Toronto General Hospital, a position he held for 14 years. Dr. Wigle was awarded the Order of Canada in 2006 for his research accomplishments and clinical leadership in Cardiology.
Dr. Wigle is credited with creating a multi-faceted Division that has become one of the pre-eminent units in North America. His leadership and development of Cardiology at the Toronto General Hospital, and broadly at the University of Toronto, have led some to describe him as one of the Fathers of Modern Cardiology in this country.
Dr. Wigle had a long and illustrious research career, touching on multiple aspects of valvular and myocardial heart disease. He is likely best known for his seminal contributions to the description and characterization of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. His original work in this field, dating back to 1962, is still referred to as the classic description of this disease.
Dr. Wigle’s influence, however, stretched far beyond his important research contributions. He set the standard for clinical cardiology, demanding excellence of clinicians at the bedside, and a rigorous patient-centred approach to the diagnosis and management of heart disease. Dr. Wigle is directly responsible for training generations of leadership in Cardiology in Canada and internationally. His rigorous academic approach to clinical medicine, which was novel and groundbreaking in the 1960s and 1970s, has now become mainstream for our Department. Cardiology at the Toronto General Hospital and at the University of Toronto, will always be synonymous with the name “Doug Wigle”. Dr. Wigle’s passing truly marks the end of era, and the loss of our first great leader in Cardiology in Toronto.
For information about the visitation, remembrance service and reception with Dr. Wigle’s family - please visit:
http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/Deaths.20130708.93323795/BDAStory/BDA/deaths.
