Ever since the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center was founded in 1962, we have been committed to clinical research and to improving our understanding of the most effective treatments for cardiovascular disease.

Today, our department has over 30 active clinical research studies covering conditions as diverse as prevention of heart attacks to innovative devices used for the invasive treatment of atrial arrhythmias.

Nearly 75% of our faculty participate in these important clinical studies, which we believe offers our patients access to the cutting-edge therapies for nearly all cardiovascular conditions. In addition, our faculty includes multiple grant-funded researchers as well as medical device designers, holding innovative patents that have led to significant improvements in cardiovascular care throughout the U.S.

Key Clinical Research

Several of our faculty members are leading efforts to better understand specific cardiovascular conditions and therapies.

  • Drs. Sachin Shah, and David Venesy have established a first-of-its-kind clinical registry for patients with a rare infiltration of heart muscle caused by sarcoidosis, more commonly known to affect the lungs. They work in close collaboration with our colleagues in other disciplines in an effort to explore cutting edge options for providing comprehensive care to these patients. Their efforts have resulted in a substantial multiyear grant to establish the registry and expand it to other clinical centers.
  • Dr. Christopher Pyne has been one of the pioneers in the transition of cardiac catheterization procedures to radial artery access and approach, with a dramatic reduction in the post-procedural bed rest, discomfort, and bleeding risk as compared with traditional femoral artery procedures.
  • Dr. Sarju Ganatra has established one of the most acclaimed cardio-oncology programs in the country at Lahey and has emerged one of the thought leaders in the field. He has multiple ongoing projects exploring the burden of cardiovascular disease in patients receiving therapies for cancer and efforts to mitigate their untoward effects on cardiovascular system.
  • Sourbha S. Dani is involved in cardiovascular outcomes research at the national level. He is involved with research utilizing publicly available domains such as National Inpatient Sample, National Readmissions Database, CDC-WONDER, and Medicare databases. He has mentored medical students trainees, building very active collaborative research network. His research spans from premature cardiovascular disease to social and environmental determinants of health. He is a researcher at Comparative Effective Research Institute (CERI) at Lahey involved with observational data analysis. Additionally, he works with cost-effectiveness registry at Tufts University Medical Center, Boston, MA.. Dr. Dani has also been instrumental in mentoring our fellows and inculcating habits of scholarship and inquiry. His efforts have resulted in dozens of presentations by our fellows at the annual scientific sessions of American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association, among other national and regional conferences.
  • There are multiple ongoing projects spearheaded by Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Group mentioned in the section above.
  • Women’s Heart Center Translational Research Program, detailed in the section above, is a unique collaborative program to understand the genesis of sex differences in cardiovascular disease by diving deep into the details of a patient’s biology and environment. It combines clinical, basic science and bioinformatics approaches to uncover the disease mechanisms and develop novel diagnostics and treatments for women’s heart disease.

In addition to bedside clinical and translational research, the department has several additional areas of research focus.

  • Dr. Matthew Reynolds, an electrophysiologist, is a world leader in the evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and overall impact of cardiovascular devices and therapies. He has led the investigations into the cost-effectiveness of the transcatheter aortic valve treatments and continues to explore the utility of atrial fibrillation ablation procedures, as compared with traditional medical treatments.
  • Dr. Frederic S. Resnic, in addition to serving as Chairman of the Department, is the co-director of the Lahey Health Comparative Effectiveness Research Institute (CERI). Dr. Resnic directs CERI’s efforts in utilizing real-world clinical data to evaluate the impact of alternative treatments used in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. His particular research focus is on the safety of medical devices, and has been the recipient of numerous Federal grants to study the performance of implantable medical devices, and their safety over time.