Medical Navigation & Cardiac Education Consultant

Applying four decades of clinical leadership to strategic oversight for complex cardiovascular and multi-system cases.

Director of Cardiac Catheterization

• National regulatory pioneer: planned, implemented, and directed a new regional cardiac catheterization centre — one of Canada's first safe, “stand-alone” invasive cath labs operating without on-site cardiac surgical backup, helping evolve national medical norms.

Associate Professor & Co-Founder, Ambulatory Cardiac Centre

• Spearheaded the shift toward high-efficiency outpatient cardiac management within a world-class academic environment, improving patient throughput and continuity of care.
• The first two years back from Pakistan: Dr. Abdulla returned to Canada in 1998 and settled in Ottawa. Dr. Higginson, who headed the Heart Institute’s cardiovascular centre and had visited Dr. Abdulla’s East Africa work, did not want a competitor and proposed that they join forces. Dr. Abdulla accepted an appointment at the University of Ottawa, practised cardiology at the Heart Institute and, with Dr. Baird, set up the Institute’s first separate Ambulatory Cardiac Centre at a site away from the main campus.

Professor & First Head of Cardiology

• International program architect: after a decade-long relationship with the institution, designed and launched AKU's first tertiary cardiac program and Cardiac Catheterization Lab, holding every clinical protocol to rigorous international (ACC) standards — see “A Twenty-Five-Year Partnership” below, and the full record of the AKU years, 1994–1998.
• Associate Professor (1994–96), then Professor (1996–98), Department of Medicine; taught Phase I & III medical students and residents throughout.
• Contracted separately by the Aga Khan Health Service, East Africa (1999): developed the proposal and feasibility study for the first comprehensive, integrated Cardiac Program with AKU; updated the plan and authored the Strategic Plan in 2002. That program is now fully operational — His Highness the Aga Khan personally inaugurated its Heart and Cancer Centre in Nairobi in 2007, built on the integrated, space-consolidated Cardiac Centre model Dr. Abdulla had developed and championed.
• A lasting legacy: the program's reach went well beyond the institution itself — establishing AKU's first accredited cardiology fellowship meant training the fellows who would go on to become the next generation of cardiology leaders internationally. His first fellow, Dr. Ata ur Rehman Qureshi, is now Head of Cardiology at Dalhousie University, Halifax; his second, Dr. Syed “Najaf” Nadeem, went on to serve as Associate Professor at Dalhousie University and the Dalhousie/QEII Health Sciences Centre; in August 2020 he moved to Toronto, joining Humber River Hospital — an academic teaching hospital of the University of Toronto — as an innovation leader in its Division of Cardiology, and has since been named Head of the Division of Cardiology there.

Adjunct Professor & Chief of Cardiovascular Department

• Adjunct Professor, Laurentian University, Sudbury.
• Departmental leadership as Deputy Chief (1989–90) and Chief (1990–92) — see the full record of these ten years.
• Clinical founder of the region's first Nuclear Cardiology program (serving as Medical Director & Radiation Safety Officer, licensed under the Atomic Energy Commission of Canada), the region's first Pacemaker Clinic, and the first Cardiac Rehabilitation program he established and headed.
• Extended specialist cardiology care to underserved communities via outreach clinics in Blind River (1984–94) and Elliot Lake (1992–94).
• With $1.4 million in Ontario Government funding over its seven-year run, established the region's first community-wide Heart Health Program — see the full story on its own page.
• Honoured as a “Founder” by the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario (2000) for his contributions on the first Ontario Cardiovascular Advisory Board — which then went on to create the first Provincial Cardiac Care Network of Ontario, of which he was one of the founding members.

Program Founder, Nuclear Cardiology

• The first program-development role of his career: established and directed the first Nuclear Cardiology Laboratory in a community, non-university-affiliated hospital setting.

Clinical Consultant & Private Practice

• Sustained, high-volume clinical consultancy across major Canadian and U.S. centres, including the University Health Network (Toronto General Hospital), alongside solo private practices in Vancouver and West Vancouver.