Philip S Wells

Biography

• Born Kincardine, Canada
• 1984 – Graduated with MD from the University of Ottawa
• 1989 – Achieved FRCP Internal Medicine Fellowship from the University of Ottawa
• 1991 – Achieved FRCP specialisation in haematology at McMaster University
• 1994 – MSc in clinic epidemiology from McMaster University
• 2009 – Chair/Chief of the Department of Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa

Medical Eponyms

• Wells criteria (2001) – risk stratification score for patients with pulmonary embolism (PE)
• Wells Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) Criteria (2003) – risk stratification for patients with Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT).

Key Medical Attributions

• Professor Wells has produced pioneering research in diagnosis, etiology, prevention, treatment, and long-term complications of deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. He has received numerous awards for his research, including the Canada Research Chair in Thromboembolic Disease (2001), the Premier’s Research Excellence award, Canadian Institutes of Health Research career scientist award, the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Researcher of the Year (2004), and the ‘J. David Grimes’ Career Researcher Award (2012).
• He helped to create the Thrombosis Treatment and Assessment Unit at The Ottawa Hospital, providing one of the only around-the-clock thrombosis care units in the world
• Wells aided in founding the Venous Thromboembolism Clinical Trails Organization (VECOTR) to broaden thrombosis research focusing on clinical trials and clinical genetics

Major Publications

• Wells PS, Anderson DR, Rodger M, Stiell I, Dreyer JF, Barnes D, Forgie M, Kovacs G, Ward J, Kovacs MJ. Excluding pulmonary embolism at the bedside without diagnostic imaging: management of patients with suspected pulmonary embolism presenting to the emergency department by using a simple clinical model and d-dimer. Ann Intern Med. 2001 Jul 17;135(2):98-107. [Wells criteria]
• Wolf SJ, McCubbin TR, Feldhaus KM, Faragher JP, Adcock DM. Prospective validation of Wells Criteria in the evaluation of patients with suspected pulmonary embolism. Ann Emerg Med. 2004 Nov;44(5):503-10. [Wells criteria – validation]
• Wells PS, Anderson DR, Rodger M, Forgie M, Kearon C, Dreyer J, Kovacs G, Mitchell M, Lewandowski B, Kovacs MJ. Evaluation of D-dimer in the diagnosis of suspected deep-vein thrombosis. N Engl J Med. 2003 Sep 25;349(13):1227-35. [Wells DVT Criteria]
• Scarvelis D, Wells PS. Diagnosis and treatment of deep-vein thrombosis. CMAJ. 2006 Oct 24;175(9):1087-92. [Wells DVT Criteria – validation]
• Kovacs MJ, Anderson DR, Wells PS. Outpatient treatment of pulmonary embolism with Dalteparin. Thromb Hemost. 2000;83:209-211.
• The Columbus Investigators including Wells PS. Low molecular weight Heparin in the treatment of patients with venous thromboembolism. N Engl J Med. 1997;337:657-62.

References

• The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. Philip Wells. 2011
• Ottawa Department of Medicine. Dr Philip Wells. n.d.