Honorary doctorate to Roxana Mehran

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Institutional Communication Service

7 May 2022

At the 26th USI Dies academicus, Roxana Mehran, Professor at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Biomedical Sciences "for her many substantial contributions to the field of modern cardiology, for her inclusive and multidisciplinary vision in clinical research, and for being a spokesperson in the international community on issues related to equal opportunities and gender medicine."

Roxana Mehran is a Professor at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She is known for her work in the field of interventional cardiology. In 2019, she received the Mount Sinai Professor in Cardiovascular Clinical Research and Outcomes award. Professor Mehran advocates for women in medicine with a focus on cardiology. She authored a study in The Lancet, shining a light on the lack of gender-specific research related to women's heart health. She co-founded Women as One, an organisation dedicated to the advancement of women physicians, and was named Lead Commissioner for The Lancet's Commission on Women and Cardiovascular Disease in 2020. She was among the founders of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, New York City, in 2000.

Source: https://www.mountsinai.org/profiles/roxana-mehran

 

Laudatio for Roxana Mehran

Giovanni Pedrazzini
Dean of USI Faculty of Biomedical Sciences

Roxana Mehran was born in Iran and moved with her family to New York City at 13. After a degree in chemistry, she studied medicine at St. George University School of Medicine in Grenada, completing her training in internal medicine at the University of Connecticut. In 1991 she began her cardiology training at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York alongside legendary figures such as Milton Packer, Valentin Fuster and Richard Gorlin. She further specialised in interventional cardiology at Lenox Hill Hospital from 1999 to 2004 and Columbia University from 2004 to 2010, where she worked alongside Prof. Martin Leon.

In 2010 she returned to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she is still active in interventional cardiology, research - she is Chief Scientific Officer of the Clinical Trials Center at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation at The Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute - and as a Full Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Her main areas of research revolve around coronary artery disease, particularly myocardial infarction, which remains, may I remind you, the leading cause of death in industrialised countries. She has published more than 1200 papers in her career and has an impressive H-Index of 141.

In addition to her constant commitment to cardiovascular medicine, Prof. Mehran has always been one of the most influential and respected voices on the highly topical issue of gender balance. She has always fought for the full inclusion of minorities and women in both clinics and research, initiatives that she promotes internationally through the Women as One Association, founded with the French Marie-Claude Maurice.

Also, on the front of gender medicine, an emerging theme of modern medicine - it is increasingly evident that men and women have different symptoms and behaviours in many diseases, including cardiovascular. Prof. Mehran is considered one of the leaders of this important new front of clinical research: it is no coincidence that she chairs the international commission of the journal Lancet Women in Cardiovascular Disease. The following has been written about her: "Over many decades, she has become the voice in gender balance and gender equality in our field. As such, she is an extraordinary role model for young physicians."

Throughout her career, she has been the recipient of numerous accolades. I will mention just one that sums up her career profile very well: World's Most Influential Scientific Minds in 2014

By awarding an honorary doctorate, Università della Svizzera italiana, on the recommendation of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, wishes to acknowledge Prof. Roxana Mehran of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York "for her many substantial contributions to the field of modern cardiology, for her inclusive and multidisciplinary vision in clinical research, and for being a spokesperson in the international community on issues related to equal opportunities and gender medicine".

 

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