Stuart Hutchison

Motivated by the journey rather than the destination, Dr. Stuart Hutchison is a highly successful cardiologist, professor, medical researcher and very accomplished amateur climber. He possesses a mind that is constantly checking for causal patterns and errors in judgment, and he has managed to combine climbing with leading-edge work in cardiac sciences, medicine, and diagnostic imaging. His ability to discern patterns has allowed him to make decisions that are adaptive in many different contexts, and has allowed him to excel in his personal and professional endeavors.

Dr. Hutchison's incredible accomplishments in mountaineering and in the field of cardiology make him a person we need to get to know. He has been able to reach the elite level in two incredibly challenging and different fields of endeavor. In both medicine and climbing, he has encountered physical challenges and has had to make life-and-death decisions in circumstances that very few humans have seen or even know about. Throughout his career, he has brought his passions and talents to bear on improving the way he and his colleagues approach their highly disciplined and challenging work.

An avid sportsman, Hutchison has run twenty marathons, cycled through Europe and climbed the tallest peaks in the world across three continents. Having scaled the likes of K2 and having been within a few hundred feet of the summit of Mount Everest on his second expedition there, he points to the some of the tallest in North America as his favourites and the scaling of Cho Oyo, the sixth tallest world-wide, as the most satisfying.

Dr. Hutchison is a Clinical Professor of Medicine in the department of Cardiac Sciences and Medicine at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, University of Calgary. He is also Director of Echo-Cardiography for the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services. Dr. Hutchison is an avid photographer and continues to explore the high places in this world.

For more background, see "Adventurer in Cardiology" in the latest edition of Libin Life - click here.