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Cardiologist warns of stalled U.S. heart health gains
New national report finds widening disparities despite medical advances.
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Malvika Choudhary - Sat, 28, Feb 2026
- 15:41 EST
- 14
Rishi K. Wadhera / news.harvard.edu
Indian American cardiovascular specialist Rishi K. Wadhera warned that progress in U.S. heart health has stalled and, in some areas, worsened despite advances in treatment and prevention.
Wadhera is the lead author of the Inaugural Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) Cardiovascular Statistics 2026 report, which provides a national snapshot of cardiovascular risk factors and outcomes in the United States.
Also Read: U.S. South Asians see heart risk by age 45: Study
According to the study, only two in three adults with hypertension receive medical treatment, a rate that has not improved in more than a decade. From 2000 to 2019, hypertension-related cardiovascular deaths nearly doubled, rising from 23 to 43 per 100,000 people.
The data also show growing concern among younger adults, with a sharp rise in hospital death rates from severe first heart attacks among those aged 18 to 54.
“Many other higher-income countries are grappling with rising obesity and diabetes,” Wadhera said. “But the U.S. stands out for how consistently those risks translate into worse cardiovascular outcomes, and how wide the gaps are by income, race, ethnicity, and geography.”
While mortality from coronary artery disease declined by about 50 percent between 2000 and 2020 and smoking rates have fallen, disparities by income, race, and geography persist, the report notes.
Wadhera is a cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He serves as associate director of the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research and founding director of its Section of Health Policy.
He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications and leads multiple National Institutes of Health-funded research projects examining how national health policies affect access, affordability, and cardiovascular outcomes.
Wadhera received his doctor of medicine from the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, an master of philosophy in public health from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, and a master of public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
He completed his internal medicine residency and cardiovascular fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
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