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Indian-American Duke cardiologists to lead American Heart Association
Patel and Shah will guide the Association's scientific and research leadership through June 2027.
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Ankita Baidya - Thu, 02, Jul 2026
- 03:58 EDT
- 27
Dr. Manesh R. Patel (left) and Dr. Svati H. Shah will lead the American Heart Association / medschool.duke.edu
Indian-American cardiologists Manesh R. Patel and Svati H. Shah of Duke Health have been named volunteer president and volunteer president-elect, respectively, of the American Heart Association (AHA) for the 2026-27 fiscal year, effective July 1, according to the Association.
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In a LinkedIn post announcing his appointment, Patel said he was "proud to be the first South Asian person to hold this role, a moment that reflects my family's journey and the values they instilled in me."
In a Q&A published by Duke University School of Medicine, Shah said her parents immigrated from India and "worked tirelessly to escape the poverty in which they were raised." She credited her mother, who raised her and her sister as a single parent, as the greatest influence on her life and career.
Patel is chief of the Division of Cardiology, chief of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, and vice president of Heart and Vascular Services at Duke Health. He also holds the Richard Stack Distinguished Professorship of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and serves as a senior investigator at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
He earned his medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine and completed his residency and cardiology fellowship at Duke. A longtime AHA volunteer, Patel has served on the Association's national board of directors and chaired its Committee on Scientific Sessions Program. He was named the Association's Physician of the Year in 2023.
As volunteer president, Patel will serve as the Association's lead volunteer scientific and medical officer.
Shah is the Ursula Geller Distinguished Professor of Research in Cardiovascular Diseases, associate dean for translational research, and director of the Duke Center for Precision Health and the Precision Genomics Collaboratory at Duke University School of Medicine.
She also serves as vice chief of research in the Division of Cardiology, director of the Adult Cardiovascular Genetics Clinic, and co-director of translational research at the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute.
According to the Association, Shah earned a public health degree from Johns Hopkins University and a medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine. She completed her residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital before pursuing a cardiology fellowship at Duke.
She has chaired the Association's Research Committee and its Genomic and Precision Medicine Council and currently serves on its national board of directors. As volunteer president-elect, Shah will support the Association's leadership on research and scientific discovery initiatives.
The American Heart Association's 2026-27 fiscal year runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027.
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