Harvard Catalyst Profiles

Hypertension affects 85% of older adults. Many have blood pressure that differ at home from clinic. Our AHA-certified hypertension clinic is one of the only hypertension centers of excellence in the country that performs 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. We are conducting a number of innovative quality improvement projects focused on improved blood pressure measurement in the clinic setting, including home blood pressure monitoring and automated office-based blood pressure monitoring. We are also creating a registry of ambulatory blood pressure measurements, which will be used to characterize blood pressure variability at home in a wide range of general medicine patients, yielding novel and previously uncharacterized insights on blood pressure regulation in a number of understudied populations. This experience provides students opportunities to: (1) Learn the process of registry creation in the context of clinical practice for rigorous quality improvement projects (2) Participate in publications related to blood pressure measurement and hypertension diagnosis at home and in clinic (3) Collaborate with clinics throughout Harvard (and eventually nationally outside Harvard) to grow the registry (4) Work with an innovative team to improve the technologic implementation of blue-tooth enabled home blood pressure monitors in clinical practice

High blood pressure affects nearly 50% of adults in the US. Access to healthful foods is a critical barrier to preventive efforts to prevent hypertension and cardiovascular disease. We are conducting two randomized clinical trials to deliver groceries to Black adults living in Boston food deserts. We will recruit participants through 3 Beth Israel Clinics. Our primary outcome will be blood pressure. This experience provides students opportunities to: (1) Learn about clinical trial implementation and would emerge with knowledge on how to conduct trials; (2) Participate in the publications related nutrition, health access, and blood pressure using data sets including NHANES as well as prior clinical trials. (3) Participate in planning novel nutrition interventions involving HUD and other government subsidized meal programs (4) Network with institutions throughout the U.S. as part of an American Heart Association Strategic Network focused on health equity

We are funded by the American Heart Association as part of a Strategically Focused Research Network (SFRN) focused on improving diversity and representation in clinical trials. We are working with a national team of investigators from University of Vermont and Johns Hopkins University to study strategies for improving outreach and enrollment of underrepresented communities. Our team is multidisciplinary and includes cardiologists, general internists, ethicists, computer scientists, and nursing. Students have the opportunity to participate in the design of novel recruitment experiments as well as lead research for presentation at conferences and publication. Through this opportunity students will gain experience in clinical trials, clinical trial recruitment, primary data collection, and experience in scientific data interpretation and communication. Moreover, there are amble opportunities for expanding professional networks through working in a national network. We have an excellent track record of mentorship with students and would be delighted to have you join our team!