Meera Narayanan-Pandit
Public Health Pathway
Race and the Heart
An environmental studies major and chemistry minor, Meera became interested in studying racial disparities in cardiovascular disease care after reading an article about racial bias in clinical care for one of her classes. She joined the Public Health Pathway and interned with the cardiology division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Mass., where she conducted research on the mutations of genes important to blood clotting and heart disease. She also shadowed doctors on cardiology inpatient consults and at outpatient clinics. “Conducting laboratory research while also interacting with patients in need of cardiovascular care taught me about the important connections between research and clinical practices,” she says. Meera, who plans to pursue an M.D. and master’s in public health, presented a poster at the Symposium detailing the influence of race on heart disease and what can be done to improve patient care. “I hope my audience learned that racial disparities in cardiovascular disease exist and are well established in the healthcare world, and that there are concrete ways to address these issues that should be implemented at the clinical level to best support marginalized communities.”