Steering Committee - Biography

Nirav R. Shah, MD, MPH

Assistant Professor of Medicine and Associate Director for Research, Department of Internal Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, and Associate Investigator, Center for Health Research at Geisinger Health.

Dr. Shah cares for patients at Bellevue Hospital in New York and conducts research that combines health information technology and new ways to improve cardiovascular disease care for vulnerable populations in two settings: the public hospital system of New York City and the rural, aging population of eastern Pennsylvania's Geisinger Health System. A graduate of the AHA-sponsored Seminar on the Epidemiology and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease (the Tahoe Seminar) and completing his PhD in Epidemiology this year, Dr. Shah’s primary interest lies in the intersection of epidemiologic methods and research that is directly relevant to patient care.

Current work includes the development of a predictive model for congestive heart failure by mining Electronic Health Record (EHR) data, which yields a highly sensitive and specific prediction of CHF nearly a year before a clinical diagnosis normally occurs. In work for AHRQ, Dr. Shah is conducting a randomized controlled trial leveraging an EHR platform to improve rates of prophylactic aspirin use, with tailored patient messaging and an interactive physician clinical decision support tool to enhance shared decision-making. In an RWJ Foundation funded study, Dr. Shah is implementing guideline-based care for patients with cardiovascular disease using clinical decision support. A final AHRQ-funded study currently underway is a comparative effectiveness study of ACE Inhibitors and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers in hypertension, once again using retrospective data from EHRs.

Dr. Shah is a graduate of Harvard College, received his MD and MPH degrees from Yale School of Medicine, and completed additional postdoctoral training as a Fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA. He serves on the editorial boards of two medical journals, has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and has received over 2.5 million dollars in funding as Principal Investigator of Federal, Foundation and Private grants. In 2007, Dr. Shah was selected as one of fifteen national recipients of the RWJ Foundation Physician Faculty Scholars Award, and in 2009 was elected to Fellowship in the American College of Physicians.

CVRN Center: GHS Center for Health Research