(Boston)–Vasan Ramachandran, MD, FACC, the Jay and Louise Coffman Professor in Vascular Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), delivered the prestigious William B. Kannel, MD, Memorial Lecture during the American Heart Association’s (AHA) 2019 EPI/Lifestyle Scientific Sessions held in Houston.
The Lecture was established in 2013 jointly by the AHA’s Council on Epidemiology and Prevention and the American Society of Preventive Cardiology to honor Dr. Kannel’s dedication to the field of cardiovascular epidemiology.
Ramachandran discussed the fundamental concepts of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and the landmark contributions to understanding these risks over the past six decades. “CVD risk nests biologically within cells, tissues, key organ systems, and species – and sociologically within individuals, families, communities and populations. Structural, macrosocial, economic, cultural and societal factors influence human behavior, lifestyle choices, and, consequently, impact individual susceptibility to the development of CVD risk factors and their progression over of a lifetime,” he explained.
Ramachandran joined BUSM as an associate professor of medicine in 1998 and was promoted to professor in 2006. He was appointed professor of epidemiology at BU School of Public Health in 2013. Currently, he serves as chief of the section of preventive medicine and epidemiology in the department of medicine, principal investigator and director of the renowned Framingham Heart Study, with which he has been affiliated for the past 19 years, and was the founding Editor of Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics.
He received his medical degree from, and completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in cardiology at, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. He is the recipient of many RO1 awards and a mid-career clinical investigator award ((K24) from the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute.
Over the last 25 years, Ramachandran has made major contributions to the genetic and non-genetic epidemiology of congestive heart failure; population-based vascular testing, echocardiography and exercise testing; the genetic and non-genetic epidemiology of high blood pressure; and cardiovascular disease risk prediction models. His many awards and honors include the BUSM’s department of medicine’s Evans Scholar and Outstanding Mentor awards in 2010; Outstanding Mentor, American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Epidemiology Prevention in 2012; and the AHA’s prestigious Population Science Award in 2014.
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