Magdy Younes

Magdy Kherallah Younes is a Canadian physician and researcher specializing in respirology and sleep medicine. His major areas of focus include reflex control of breathing during exercise, sleep and mechanical ventilation; pathogenesis of respiratory failure; patient-ventilator interactions; hemodynamics of pulmonary circulation; pathogenesis of obstructive sleep apnea; and determination of novel biomarkers in the electroencephalogram (EEG). He is the inventor of several novel approaches to diagnosis and treatment, including Proportional Assist Ventilation (PAV), methods for non-invasive determination of passive respiratory mechanics during assisted ventilation, and Odds Ratio Product of sleep (ORP). These approaches have led to the development of several medical devices, including the Winnipeg Ventilator.
Life, career and research.
Younes was born July 30, 1939 in Damanhur, Egypt. He obtained his medical degree from Alexandria University, immigrating to Canada in 1964 and obtaining his clinical training in internal medicine and respiratory medicine at McGill University hospitals in Montreal. This was followed by a PhD in respiratory physiology at McGill University.
Younes subsequently held academic appointments as a clinician-scientist in the departments of Medicine at McGill University, University of Texas Medical Branch, Dalhousie University and the University of Manitoba. He was the Head of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Manitoba 1988-1997 and Director of the sleep laboratory at the Health Sciences Center 1991-2001. During his tenure at the University of Manitoba he began developing the Winnipeg Ventilator, PAV and other novel approaches to respiratory diagnosis and treatment. He retired from active practice and full-time academia in 2001 and is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba.
Younes’s research in respirology, critical care medicine and sleep medicine has resulted in nearly 200 original peer-reviewed papers, book chapters and reviews, as well as numerous patents.