Newswise — BOSTON – Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center announced today the launch of a new research center that will use rigorous scientific methods to evaluate and transform the delivery of care for cardiovascular conditions in the United States.
The Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) will bring together clinicians and researchers to examine the most pressing challenges in cardiovascular care, including clinical effectiveness, cost, quality, ethics and public policy. The center’s funding is part of a generous gift to BIDMC from Richard A. and Susan F. Smith.
Robert W. Yeh, MD, MSc, MBA, has been named Director of the Smith Center. A national leader in cardiovascular outcomes research and an interventional cardiologist specializing in complex coronary interventions, Yeh joins BIDMC from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).
“Rising health care costs, expanding technological capabilities and increasing patient complexity all impact the cardiovascular care delivered in the United States today,” said Peter Zimetbaum, MD, Associate Chief and Clinical Director of Cardiology at the CardioVascular Institute at BIDMC and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “As a result of the Smith family’s generosity, this new center will seek evidence-based insights that have the potential to dramatically improve patient outcomes.”
“Through clinical trials and data analysis, our researchers will assess clinical practices, therapies and devices used to treat the full range of cardiovascular conditions,” said Yeh. “The engagement of physician-scientists in this new center will inform the clinical care offered by the CardioVascular Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and allow our patients to benefit quickly from new insights.”
Yeh has led seminal research using electronic health record data to inform cardiovascular epidemiology and improve clinical risk prediction to maximize procedural value. He is an expert in the use of observational research methods in examining comparative effectiveness and evaluating health policy. In addition to his leadership of the Smith Center, he will maintain a clinical cardiology practice at the CardioVascular Institute at BIDMC and will continue to serve as Medical Director of Trial Design at the Harvard Clinical Research Institute. .
Yeh received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, his MBA from the University of Oxford and a Masters in Health Policy, Planning and Financing jointly from the London School of Economics and Politics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He completed his training in internal medicine at MGH, in cardiology at the University of California San Francisco and in interventional cardiology at MGH.
About Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School and consistently ranks as a national leader among independent hospitals in National Institutes of Health funding.
BIDMC is in the community with Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth, Anna Jaques Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Lawrence General Hospital, Signature Healthcare, Beth Israel Deaconess HealthCare, Community Care Alliance and Atrius Health. BIDMC is also clinically affiliated with the Joslin Diabetes Center and Hebrew Rehabilitation Center and is a research partner of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and The Jackson Laboratory. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit www.bidmc.org.
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