Dr. Jacques Kpodonu

I am a currently practicing board certified cardiac surgeon/scientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. I have also earned a certificate in International Leadership Development Program for Physicians through the Harvard School of Public Health. My clinical areas of interests include structural heart disease and I do have a particular interest in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

As an NIH funded scientist my research interests are focused at the intersection cardiac surgery, data science and global health to address cardiovascular health disparities. I have written extensively on implementing outcomes-based cardiovascular guidelines in emerging countries and serve as editor of the Global Health Series first edition textbook, “Cardiac Surgery Capacity Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. I am also partnered with the African Centers of Excellence in addressing Rheumatic Heart Disease.

I am an active member of several national and international professional organizations including the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, American College of Cardiology, Society of Vascular Surgery, Association of Black Cardiologists and Ghana Medical Association. I am a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC) and currently serve on the global health workforce for the Association of Black Cardiologists, workforce for Diversity and Inclusion for the Society of Thoracic Surgery and the cardiac surgery leadership workforce of American College of Cardiology. In this capacity, I have participated in establishing national guidelines for the development of an equitable and diverse cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery workforce. In addition, I am associate editor of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery the leading cardiothoracic journal in our specialty and associate editor of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Network (CTSNet Global Portal) where I oversee global cardiothoracic surgery education, research, webinars for the largest network of cardiothoracic surgeons in the world. I am also a part of the NHLBI workgroup on “Rheumatic Heart Disease,” a workgroup tasked with developing scientific research questions around understanding rheumatic heart disease for future NIH funding opportunities to address global cardiovascular burden of disease. There are many opportunities for advocating for promoting and addressing cardiovascular health disparities and I plan to be at the forefront.