Rishi K. Wadhera, M.D., M.P.P., M.Phil. is a cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Associate Program Director of the Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship at BIDMC, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is also the Section Head of Health Policy and Equity at the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research.
Dr. Wadhera received his M.D. from the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine as well as a Masters (M.Phil.) in Public Health as a Gates Cambridge Scholar from the University of Cambridge. He completed both his Internal Medicine Residency and Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he received the Harvard Medical School Resident Teaching Excellence Award. During this time, he also received a Master’s in Public Policy (M.P.P.) as a Jerome H. Grossman Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, with a focus on health policy.
Dr. Wadhera's research combines the use of real-world data with advanced statistical, econometric, and epidemiological methods to answer questions related to healthcare access, quality, and value, population health, and health policy, with a focus on cardiovascular outcomes. His work has explored how state and federal health policy initiatives (e.g, value-based payment models, pay-for-performance, insurance expansions) - particularly those enacted under the Affordable Care Act - effect health care delivery, spending, and outcomes, as well as the impacts of policy on healthcare disparities and equity. Dr. Wadhera's research program is funded by by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and extramural grants. He is the PI of an R01 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the NIH and a K23 award, and is also a co-investigator on several other R01s. Dr. Wadhera has authored >130 peer-reviewed publications, many of which have appeared in leading medical journals (New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, British Medical Journal, JAMA Internal Medicine, Circulation, JACC, and Health Affairs), and has mentored numerous medical students, residents, fellows, and junior faculty across the Harvard system and nationally. He serves as Senior Associate Editor for Health Services Research Journal, is on the Editorial Board of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, and has served as an expert writing group member for American Heart Association (AHA) Policy Statements focused on value-based care in cardiology.