Sharlene Mary Day MD

Sharlene Day graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received her MD degree from New York University School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency and cardiovascular medicine fellowship at the University of Michigan. Soon after completing fellowship and postdoctoral research training, Dr. Day started a dedicated program for treating patients and their families with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in 2007 that is now one of the largest in the U.S.

While continuing to provide comprehensive care to patients with HCM and their families, the program has also broadened its focus to include evaluation and treatment of other genetic heart muscle conditions. Dr. Day and her colleagues are actively involved in institutional and multi-center research studies that aim to learn more about inherited cardiomyopathies, and to develop new treatments to prevent or delay the onset of symptoms or reduce their severity.

Dr. Day is also very interested in the underlying biology of heart muscle disorders and leads an active laboratory that uses various models systems, including human heart muscle cells that are derived from stem cells, to identify important factors that cause the disease to develop and progress over time. While the research feeds her scientific curiosity and the hope to make a real difference in developing new treatments for these conditions, it is the day to day interactions with her patients and their families that she finds most gratifying and rewarding.

As a runner and triathlete herself, Dr. Day recognizes the importance of healthy eating and regular exercise. A major focus of her research is determining the impact of fitness on quality of life and outcomes in patients with HCM, and establishing evidence-based guidelines to inform recommendations for athletes with cardiomyopathies.