The REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke-Myocardial Infarction-4 (REGARDS-MI-4) Study, funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), held its second annual Summer Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine from July 31 – August 1, 2023. The 30 investigators were from Weill Cornell, led by Dr. Monika Safford; University of Alabama at Birmingham, led by Dr. Emily Levitan; and Duke, led by Dr. Barrett Bowling.
The Study’s overall aims are to:
- Identify novel mechanisms leading to disparities in incident and recurrent coronary heart disease (CHD) and heart failure (HF), and outcomes following CHD or HF events, including structural racism and reserve and resilience;
- Build capacity in health disparities research through the mentorship of early-stage investigators.
Presentations included the use of machine learning to improve cardiovascular risk prediction; stability over time of variables reflecting structural racism; structural equation modeling to examine the role of structural racism and cardiovascular disease; perspectives on aging well of patients living with a chronic condition, and factors associated with home days following hospitalization for cardiovascular disease.
Investigators in the second annual REGARDS-MI-4 study.
The group plans to build on this work over the coming year, continuing to highlight and support the work of our fellows and junior investigators. Plans are underway to develop a process for engaging community members in all studies over the next year as a model for other observational research studies.
Investigators interested in using data from this large national cohort study should contact Dr. Safford.