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Stephen Archer (Meds’81), one of the world’s top cardiologists and head of the Department of Medicine at Queen’s University, was recently awarded the prestigious Heart of Gold award for his volunteer work for the American Heart Association (AHA). In his role as president of the Chicagoland American Heart Association Board, Dr. Archer led the creation of Mission Lifeline, part of a national strategy to ensure patients receive timely care after a severe heart attack, prior to arriving at the hospital.

A network of 30 hospitals was created to ensure medical personnel have the equipment and training to deal with this life-threatening issue.

Emcee Kye Martin, NBC 5 Chicago, presents the Heart of
Gold award to Queen's cardiologist Stephen Archer.

“It was both challenging and rewarding to see the network come to fruition over three years of intense work,” says Dr. Archer. “There were many collaborators whose participation was essential to the project’s success: from the Chicago Fire Department and emergency medical services to medical and leadership teams in each hospital. In the end, the project was a major political challenge that resulted in patients getting better care. Within a month of running Mission Lifeline, over 100 people had benefitted from the service.”

“Our project was a job many thought was impossible,” he says. “We knitted together 30 hospitals in Chicago to create one unified network serving 3 million people.”

A graduate of Queen’s University, Dr. Archer interned at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, B.C., and completed his training in cardiology at the University of Minnesota. He later served as staff cardiologist and director of the Echocardiography Laboratory at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and as director of the Cardiology Division at the University of Alberta.

He was appointed head of medicine at Queen’s University, Hotel Dieu Hospital, Kingston General Hospital and Providence Care in November 2012.