Susan Cheng, MD, Named Erika J. Glazer Chair in Women's Cardiovascular Health

Susan Cheng, MD, MPH, MMsc, one of the nation's leading cardiologists specializing in population health sciences, has been named the Erika J. Glazer Chair in Women's Cardiovascular Health and Population Science.

Cheng, who joined the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai in 2018 as director of Cardiovascular Population Sciences in the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center and director of Public Health Research, is a cardiologist, echocardiographer and clinician-scientist who leads research programs aimed at uncovering the drivers of cardiovascular aging in women and men.

"This endowment is an incredible honor and privilege," said Cheng, who came to Cedars-Sinai from Harvard Medical School, where she was assistant professor of Medicine. She also served as an associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, as well as associate director of its Cardiac Imaging Core Laboratory. "This recognition represents Cedars-Sinai's exceptionally strong commitment to advancing precision medicine in ways that are meaningful to both patients in the clinic and to public health."

Cheng's work is focused on unraveling how and why women and men experience the aging process differently, and how this leads to different types of heart disease as well as diseases affecting other organ systems. Cheng also works on pinpointing predictors of healthy aging that may be specific to women or men by analyzing large volumes of population data, with the goal of developing rigorous, data-driven approaches to maintaining health over the course of life.

"We need to better understand why we see persistent population level differences between women and men in heart health as well as overall health over the lifespan," said C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD, director of the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center. "Dr. Cheng's research will help us develop new strategies for improving long-term health and outcomes for both women and men worldwide."

Cheng has served on the editorial boards of major cardiovascular and imaging journals as well as on leadership committees for the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. She has chaired and contributed to American Heart Association scientific statements on research methods, heart disease statistics and the cardiovascular care of older adults. She has authored over 170 publications, and her work has been recognized with multiple awards and supported by continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Endowed chairs enable Cedars-Sinai to attract and retain highly distinguished scholar-researcher-physicians. Since the first in 1983, 70 chairs have been established at Cedars-Sinai, generating continuing resources to support research and teaching efforts.