Director, Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
Dr. Paul M Ridker, MD (Harvard Medical School 1985), MPH (Harvard School of Public Health 1990), serves as the Eugene Braunwald Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and as Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston Massachusetts USA.
Over a 30-year period, Dr. Ridker and his collaborators provided the first proof-of-principle for the inflammation hypothesis of atherothrombosis in humans; the first demonstration that statin therapy is both lipid-lowering and anti-inflammatory; the first FDA-approved diagnostic test for vascular inflammation (hsCRP); the first proven anti-inflammatory treatment for heart disease (canakinumab); and brought into clinical practice worldwide the concept of “residual inflammatory risk”. On multiple occasions Dr. Ridker’s work has altered clinical guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of atherosclerotic disease – the most common cause of death on a global basis. As a direct consequence of this work, multiple novel anti-inflammatory agents targeting interrelated aspects of heart disease ranging from chronic atherosclerosis to acute ischemia to congestive heart failure are under development at nearly all major pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Dr. Ridker’s work has thus catalyzed the first new target for atherothrombosis in 40 years that is not related to cholesterol, blood pressure, or coagulation.
Dr. Ridker is additionally known internationally for his leadership of over 15 major multi-national randomized clinical trials including PREVENT, JUPITER, SPIRE-1, SPIRE-2, CANTOS, CIRT, PROMINENT, and ZEUS. The recipient of multiple honorary degrees and international awards, Dr. Ridker is a Distinguished Scientist of the American Heart Association and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA.
In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Ridker was asked by the U.S. government and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to lead the ACTIV-4B Outpatient COVID-19 Thrombosis Prevention Trial.
With an h-index in 2022 of 261 and with over 300,000 cumulative citations, Dr. Ridker is among the top 15 most-cited biomedical researchers worldwide.
Dr. Ridker’s research unit has been continuously funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). With regard to mentoring and teaching, Dr. Ridker served for 20 years as Principal Investigator of an NHLBI-funded T32 Training Grant in Cardiovascular Epidemiology which supported the early career development of 60 trainees, almost all of whom remain active in academia, many now nationally and internationally recognized in their own right.
Disclosure information not submitted.
Targeting Inflammation in CVD: What is the Right Approach?
Saturday, October 25, 2025
12:05 PM – 12:25 PM EDT
Challenging Lipid Management Cases with Expert Panel Discussion and Audience Q&A
Saturday, October 25, 2025
12:25 PM – 1:40 PM EDT