The American Heart Association (AHA) has selected Emily S. Lau, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, a cardiologist and investigator at Mass General Brigham in Boston, to receive the 2026 Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Research Goes Red® Award. The award will be presented during the Association's Scientific Sessions 2026, to be held Nov. 6-9 in Chicago, at the annual Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Research Goes Red® Award for Best Scientific Article on Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke in Women session on Saturday, Nov. 7. The meeting is a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice updates in cardiovascular science.
The award, named in honor of Nanette K. Wenger, M.D., FAHA, and her pioneering career in women's cardiovascular disease medicine, recognizes the best research article or articles focused on cardiovascular disease and stroke in women published during the previous year in one of the Association's peer-reviewed scientific journals. Dr. Wenger is an emeritus professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine, consultant to the Emory Heart and Vascular Center, founding consultant to the Emory Women's Heart Center and director of the Cardiac Clinics and Ambulatory Electrocardiographic Laboratory at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. The Association's Research Goes Red® initiative aims to empower women to contribute to health research.
Dr. Lau, who also serves as co-director of the Mass General Brigham Women's Heart Health Program and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, was selected for her scientific manuscript, "Contemporary Burden of Cardiovascular Disease in Pregnancy: Insights from a Real-World Pregnancy Electronic Health Record Cohort," published online in the Heart Association's journal Circulation on Oct. 6, 2025. For this study, Dr. Lau and her colleagues created a large, multi-institutional cohort using electronic health records to examine changes in cardiovascular health and pregnancy-related cardiovascular complications over nearly two decades. The analysis included 56,833 pregnancies among 38,996 individuals treated between 2001 and 2019.
The study found that maternal cardiovascular disease was present in 4% of pregnancies overall, or 8% after adjusting for age. The age-adjusted prevalence of maternal cardiovascular disease increased from 1% in 2001 to 7% in 2019. Pregnancy-related cardiovascular complications, including maternal death, major adverse cardiovascular events and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, occurred in 15% of pregnancies overall, or 17% after adjusting for age, and also increased during the study period. Cardiovascular complications within one year after pregnancy were more common among individuals who entered pregnancy with cardiovascular conditions or risk factors, such as high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes or obesity. Complications were also found to be disproportionately higher among non-Hispanic Black women.
The findings highlight the period before, during and after pregnancy as an important opportunity to identify cardiovascular risk earlier and connect patients with preventive care. "Dr. Lau's research demonstrates the urgent need to make cardiovascular health a routine part of care before, during and after pregnancy," said Jennifer Hall, Ph.D., FAHA., chief of data science and analytics at the American Heart Association. "By documenting how cardiovascular disease and pregnancy-related complications have increased over time, this study identifies an important opportunity to recognize risk earlier, address disparities and help more women protect their heart health throughout their lives."
Submissions for the award were evaluated by 32 expert peer reviewers for their scientific impact, innovation, methodology, and quality of data and evidence supporting hypotheses and conclusions. Dr. Lau's manuscript was selected from 130 submissions from 18 countries published in the Association's peer-reviewed scientific journals between June 1, 2025, and May 29, 2026.
"It is a tremendous honor to receive an award bearing Dr. Wenger's name and to share this recognition with my co-authors," said Dr. Lau. "Our findings show that more individuals are entering pregnancy with cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease, and pregnancy-related cardiovascular complications are also increasing in parallel. Pregnancy provides a critical opportunity to identify risk, strengthen prevention and help women build better cardiovascular health across their lifetime."
Dr. Lau is a women's cardiovascular health specialist and clinical-translational investigator whose work examines how biological sex differences and female-specific risk factors contribute to cardiovascular disease. Her research combines multidimensional molecular profiling, imaging, exercise physiology and data science with large-scale cohorts, electronic health record data and patient-oriented studies. Her work has advanced understanding of cardiovascular health across women's lives, including pregnancy, infertility, menopause and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
Dr. Lau has held numerous leadership roles in women's cardiovascular health. She is currently Co-Director of the Women's Heart Health Program, Director of the Cardiometabolic Health and Hormones Clinic, and program director for the Women's Heart Health Fellowship at Mass General Brigham. She also serves on the Heart Association's Women in Cardiology Committee. She is a member of The Menopause Society's board of trustees and scientific program committee. Her research is supported by the National Institute of Health's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the American Heart Association, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and the Tianqiao & Chrissy Chen Institute. Her honors include the 2024 American College of Cardiology Douglas P. Zipes Distinguished Young Scientist Award, the 2025 American Society for Clinical Investigation Young Physician-Scientist Award, the Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award, the Roman W. DeSanctis Clinical Scholar Award and the Sheila Balson Endowed Cardiac Scholar. Dr. Lau earned her undergraduate and medical degrees from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and her master of public health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where she also served as chief medical resident, followed by fellowships in cardiovascular disease and advanced echocardiography at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Additional multimedia is available on the release link. For more news at American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2026, follow the Association on X @HeartNews, #ScientificSessions26. The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. Dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities, the organization has been a leading source of health information for more than one hundred years. Supported by more than 35 million volunteers globally, it funds groundbreaking research, advocates for the public's health, and provides critical resources to save and improve lives affected by cardiovascular disease and stroke. Connect with the Association on heart.org, Facebook, X or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1. For public inquiries, visit heart.org and stroke.org. View the original release on www.newmediawire.com.
