Research Award Spotlight: Dr. Jacinthe Boulet, CCS–BMS Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) Research Award Recipient

Dr. Jacinthe Boulet MDCM, MPH, completed her medical school and internal medicine residency at McGill University. She then completed her cardiology residency at the Université de Montréal and her Master of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as a research fellow affiliated with the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She completed her clinical fellowship in advanced heart failure and heart transplantation at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is now a faculty member of the Montreal Heart Institute in the capacity of a clinician-scientist as an advanced heart failure and heart transplantation specialist.

Read below to hear from Dr. Boulet on her award-winning research project, SWAN-HCM: Sodium–Glucose Co-Transporter Inhibition in Patients with Angina and Hypertrophic:

Q1. What attracted you to this area of research?

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the most common inherited heart disease, yet for many patients, the burden of angina remains poorly understood and inadequately treated. I was drawn to this field because it combines clinical complexity, imaging science, and unmet therapeutic needs. My motivation has always been to bring rigorous investigation to problems that directly affect patients’ daily lives.

Q2. How did this project get started?

The idea for SWAN-HCM came from seeing patients with disabling chest pain despite having normal coronary arteries. This recurring pattern pointed to a different culprit, microvascular dysfunction, for which very few effective therapies exist. Together with colleagues in advanced imaging, heart failure, and cardiogenetics, we developed a trial that could bridge an important gap between mechanism and clinical care.

Q3. Can you walk us through what your project entails?

SWAN-HCM is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study enrolling patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and angina. Participants receive a sodium-glucose co-transporter inhibitor or a placebo in a crossover design. Using state-of-the-art rubidium PET imaging, we will quantify myocardial blood-flow reserve, a direct measure of microvascular function, and evaluate changes in symptoms, quality of life, and cardiac structure over 24 weeks.

Q4. What knowledge gap will this fill?

Although microvascular dysfunction is recognized as a major driver of symptoms and adverse outcomes in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, no therapy has been shown to reverse it. This study will be the first to test a pharmacologic strategy aimed specifically at improving microvascular blood flow in this population. Demonstrating even modest improvement could redefine how we approach symptom management and long-term care in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Q5. What’s the value of this research?

By integrating advanced imaging with a promising metabolic therapy, SWAN-HCM has the potential to move the field from symptomatic treatment to disease modification. The results could inform care not only for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, but also for broader syndromes of microvascular ischemia, complex cardiomyopathies, and heart failure. Ultimately, it’s about translating mechanistic science into tangible relief for patients who have had very few options.

Q6. What does this fellowship award mean to you, personally?

This award is deeply meaningful to me because it helps me fulfill the ambitions of a project recognizing both scientific innovation and the human dimension of cardiovascular medicine. It enables the pursuit of patient-centred research, while supporting my academic growth, reflecting the privilege and responsibility of advancing knowledge that can genuinely improve how we care for people living with complex heart disease. I am sincerely grateful to organizations like the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and Bristol Myers Squibb for supporting early-career clinician-scientists. Their commitment strengthens academic excellence across Canada and empowers emerging investigators to contribute meaningfully to scientific progress and to the advancement of patient care.