In the 1980s, Northeastern Ontario's Sudbury region had among the highest rates of cardiovascular disease in the Province of Ontario. As a leader in the hospital's tertiary cardiology program, Dr. Abdulla had already introduced many new services for patient care — but he recognized that hospital-based treatment alone would never make a real difference to that level of morbidity and mortality. What the region needed was a community-wide preventive cardiac program.

He built a proposal to the Ontario Ministry of Health documenting the scale of the problem and recommending a region-wide Heart Health Program engaging the entire community. The Ministry accepted it and awarded $1 million to fund the program's first five years — with the strong political backing of Tom Davies, the Regional Chairman and head of all the region's mayors, whose support Dr. Abdulla credits as essential to making it happen. At the time, community-based preventive cardiology programs of this kind were virtually unheard of.

As Director of the program, Dr. Abdulla assembled a team and built support across every corner of Sudbury life — political leadership, the health sector, the mining industry (the region's economic engine), hospitality, education, sports and recreation, faith communities, and civic organizations. It became a genuine point of community pride, and its results were tangible: legislation banning smoking in sports arenas and restaurants, heart-healthy menu items at local restaurants, a heart-health curriculum in elementary and high schools, smoke-free hotel rooms, and direct industry funding for cardiac care facilities.

He conceived the program, wrote the proposal that won its funding, and directed it from inception until he left Sudbury in 1994 — and took no salary, fee, or expense reimbursement from the grant for any of it. Every dollar of the $1.4 million went to the program itself; his own role was entirely volunteer, the same pro bono ethic that runs through his community and humanitarian work throughout his career.

By the time Dr. Abdulla left Sudbury for the Aga Khan University in Pakistan in 1994, the program was firmly established and continued for two further years under the leadership of his protégé, Patrick O'Sullivan, during which the Ministry provided a further $400,000 — bringing the program's total funding to $1.4 million over its full run. The Sudbury & District Heart & Stroke Foundation later honoured his service to the community by naming the “Dr. Abdulla Award” after him, and this program was among the achievements that led to his receiving the Governor General of Canada's “Service to Canada” award at the 125th anniversary of Confederation.