Miguel Cainzos-achirica MD, PhD, MPH

Dr. Miguel Cainzos-Achirica is a cardiologist and cardiovascular epidemiologist trained in leading academic institutions in Europe and the United States. He earned his medical degree at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) in 2007. He trained as a cardiologist in Barcelona, where he also completed a Diploma in Biostatistics and Study Design at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He then moved to the United States where he did his MPH in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, as well as 2 years of postdoctoral training in preventive cardiology research in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Welch Center for Prevention. He also holds a Ph.D. in cardiovascular epidemiology from the Universitat de Barcelona. Dr. Cainzos-Achirica has received multiple performance awards from public and private organizations, and competitive training grants from the Spanish Society of Cardiology (2014), the Caixabank Foundation (2015), and the European Society of Cardiology (2021).

He serves as Associate Director of Preventive Cardiology Research and Education in the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center in Houston, TX, where together with Division chief Dr. Khuram Nasir he coordinates a research team comprising 3 faculty, 3 postdocs, 1 research coordinator, and 7 data scientists. He also serves as Assistant Professor of Preventive Cardiology at the Weill Cornell Medical College, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University.

His training background combines cardiology, cardiovascular epidemiology, biostatistics, cardiac imaging, and minority health; and he has broad international experience in research study design, project management, data analysis, and effective communication and dissemination of study findings. His research interests include cardiovascular disease prevention, risk assessment, use of cardiac imaging tools for enhanced risk stratification, cardiovascular prevention among vulnerable populations with a special focus on people of South Asian ancestry, and advanced epidemiological research methods.

Dr. Cainzos-Achirica has published more than 110 peer-reviewed articles, including original science, state-of-the-art review papers, invited commentaries, and research methods letters in the highest impact cardiovascular and medical peer-reviewed journals. These include the New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, Circulation, JACC, JAMA Cardiology, JACC Cardiovascular Imaging, Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging, Circulation: Heart Failure, the American Journal of Medicine, Heart, European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, European Journal of Heart Failure, Stroke, and Atherosclerosis, among others.