Veronique Roger, M.D., MPH, FACC, FAHA

Senior Investigator

Heart Disease Phenomics

NHLBI

10 CENTER DR
BG 10 RM NA
Bethesda, MD 20814
United States

301-435-0255

veronique.roger@nih.gov

Research Topics

The Laboratory of Heart Disease Phenomics works on the investigation of heart failure (HF) phenotypes and outcomes, a central domain of the work of the ECHB Chief over the past decade. In doing so, we apply novel ascertainment and analytical methods critical to contemporary epidemiology. Our goal is to delineate phenotypes and mechanisms of the HF syndrome, while integrating its intersection with aging in diverse populations.

Between 1980 and 2000, heart disease mortality declined by more than 40% in the United States. However, since the turn of the century, this trend decelerated, then stagnated, and finally reversed direction in 2015 due to a major increase in deaths attributed to HF. These alarming data indicate that the epidemic of HF heralded in 1997 remains uncontrolled and compromises progress made against heart disease mortality. These critical observational epidemiology findings provide a compelling rationale to urgently address the epidemic of HF, which requires recognizing the complexity of the syndromic nature of HF and its unequal burden across diverse populations.

HF is not a single disease and to date it is mainly characterized according to the ejection fraction (EF), an approach which does not capture the complexity and heterogeneity of the HF syndrome, and its mechanisms. These gaps in knowledge hinder therapeutic progress and treatment trials of HF with preserved EF have largely been disappointing or when encouraging lack mechanistic explanations.

Overcoming the HF epidemic requires the identification of mechanistic phenotypes of the HF syndrome. Our central goal is to address this gap in knowledge by a novel approach to HF phenotyping, paving the way to the discovery of new therapeutic targets. Our approach is grounded in the integration of robust epidemiology methods to rigorous analytical approaches to identify new phenotypes.

We leverage multidisciplinary and comprehensive longitudinal datasets for thousands of community patients with HF with access to biospecimens. Grounding this approach is an unwavering commitment to study and engage diverse populations.

Biography

Dr. Roger received her medical degree in 1986 from Sorbonne University in Paris, France and her Master in Public Health (Epidemiology) at the University of Minnesota in 1996. After training in cardiology at Mayo Clinic, in Rochester Minnesota, she joined the faculty in 1992 and became Professor in Medicine (2002) and Epidemiology (2006). At Mayo Clinic, Dr. Roger served in various leadership positions including Chair of the Department of Health Sciences Research and member of the Mayo Clinic Board of Governors and Board of Trustees.

Dr. Roger served on the NHLBI Advisory Council and the NHLBI Board of Scientific Counselors. She chaired the Epidemiology Council of the American Heart Association 2018-2020 and was recognized as the American Heart Association Distinguished Investigator in 2019.

The unifying theme of Dr. Roger’s work is the epidemiology of heart diseases, and their occurrence and outcomes in diverse communities. As a physician scientist, Dr. Roger has deployed, directly and through collaborations, multidisciplinary methods including epidemiology, outcomes and health care delivery analyses, behavioral sciences and the use of electronic health records in population research applied to case ascertainment, risk prediction and pragmatic trials.

Selected Publications

  1. Turecamo SE, Xu M, Dixon D, Powell-Wiley TM, Mumma MT, Joo J, Gupta DK, Lipworth L, Roger VL. Association of Rurality With Risk of Heart Failure. JAMA Cardiol. 2023;8(3):231-239.
  2. Conners KM, Shearer JJ, Joo J, Park H, Manemann SM, Remaley AT, Otvos JD, Connelly MA, Sampson M, Bielinski SJ, Wolska A, Turecamo S, Roger VL. The Metabolic Vulnerability Index: A Novel Marker for Mortality Prediction in Heart Failure. JACC Heart Fail. 2023.
  3. Roger VL, Banaag A, Korona-Bailey J, Wiley TMP, Turner CE, Haigney MC, Koehlmoos TP. Prevalence of Heart Failure Stages in a Universal Health Care System: The Military Health System Experience. Am J Med. 2023.

Related Scientific Focus Areas

This page was last updated on Wednesday, March 13, 2024