Mass General Brigham Cardiologist Wins 2026 Wenger Research Goes Red Award

Dr. Emily S. Lau, a cardiologist and investigator at Mass General Brigham in Boston, has been named the recipient of the American Heart Association’s 2026 Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Research Goes Red® Award. The honor recognizes her manuscript, “Contemporary Burden of Cardiovascular Disease in Pregnancy: Insights from a Real-World Pregnancy Electronic Health Record Cohort,” published in the Association’s journal Circulation on Oct. 6, 2025. The award will be presented during the Association’s Scientific Sessions 2026, held Nov. 6-9 in Chicago, at a dedicated session on Saturday, Nov. 7. The award is named for Dr. Nanette K. Wenger, a pioneering figure in women’s cardiovascular medicine and emeritus professor at Emory University School of Medicine, and it celebrates the best research article on cardiovascular disease and stroke in women published in one of the Association’s peer-reviewed journals. The Research Goes Red® initiative aims to empower women to contribute to health research.

Dr. Lau’s study analyzed 56,833 pregnancies among 38,996 individuals from 2001 to 2019 using a large, multi-institutional electronic health record cohort. It found that maternal cardiovascular disease was present in 4% of pregnancies overall—8% after age adjustment—and that the age-adjusted prevalence climbed from 1% in 2001 to 7% in 2019. Pregnancy-related cardiovascular complications, including maternal death, major adverse cardiovascular events and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, occurred in 15% of pregnancies overall (17% age-adjusted) and also rose over the study period. Complications were more common among those with pre-existing conditions such as high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes or obesity, and were disproportionately higher among non-Hispanic Black women. The findings underscore the period before, during and after pregnancy as a critical window to identify cardiovascular risk earlier and connect patients with preventive care.

“Dr. Lau’s research demonstrates the urgent need to make cardiovascular health a routine part of care before, during and after pregnancy,” said Jennifer Hall, Ph.D., FAHA, chief of data science and analytics at the American Heart Association. Dr. Lau, who is co-director of the Mass General Brigham Women’s Heart Health Program and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, called the award “a tremendous honor.” Her manuscript was selected from 130 submissions from 18 countries, evaluated by 32 expert peer reviewers. Additional resources, including multimedia, are available on the release link, and updates can be followed on X @HeartNews using #ScientificSessions26.