Salim S. Virani MD, PhD, FACC, FAHA, FASPC

Salim S. Virani, MD, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Cardiology and Cardiovascular Research Sections at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He is also an investigator in the Health Policy, Quality, and Informatics Program at the Michael E. DeBakey VA HSR&D Center of Innovation in Houston, TX. His clinical practice includes being a Preventive Cardiologist at Baylor College of Medicine and the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, with a special emphasis on the management of complex dyslipidemias. He also serves as the Director of the Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Virani’s research portfolio aims to understand several domains in the delivery of high-quality primary and secondary cardiovascular disease preventive care including effectiveness, equity, safety, and efficiency. Via funded research grants from the Department of Veterans Affairs, American Diabetes Association, and the American Heart Association, his team is evaluating models of delivery of primary cardiovascular disease preventive care, how to leverage machine learning to identify statin intolerance, and how point-of-care informatics-driven interventions can improve guideline-concordant care delivery. His team is also evaluating how best to leverage technology to deliver high-quality care in Low-Middle Income Countries. In this regard, his team has evaluated whether a culturally sensitive text-message-based intervention delivered on mobile phones can improve health literacy and medication adherence in patients with cardiovascular disease in Pakistan.

Salim team is also involved in a project in Tajikistan which aims to improve hypertension care delivery in the remote Gorno Badakshan district. He has authored or co-authored over 250 peer-reviewed publications (several with his mentees) related to various preventive therapies including cholesterol, blood pressure control, and aspirin therapy with several in high-impact journals such as Circulation, European Heart Journal, JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Cardiology, and Journal of the American College of Cardiology.