2014 Distinguished Scientist - Mark A. Hlatky

Distinguished Scientist designation honors AHA/ASA members who have made extraordinary contributions to cardiovascular and stroke research. Recipients of this prestigious award are honored during the Opening Session at AHA Scientific Sessions.

Dr. Hlatky is a cardiologist with major research interests in clinical trials, clinical research methods, outcomes research, and comparative effectiveness research. He has participated in many large, multicenter randomized clinical trials, including studies of coronary revascularization, treatment of acute myocardial infarction, hormone therapy to prevent cardiovascular disease, and management of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias.

Hlatky pioneered the collection of data on economic and quality of life outcomes as part of randomized trials, which has become a standard tool in outcomes research. He has also conducted large outcomes research studies of coronary revascularization, sudden cardiac death, implantable cardioverter defibrillators, heart failure, and coronary artery disease. He has also developed decision models to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a wide variety of clinical strategies, including prevention of sudden cardiac death, use of testing to guide preventive treatment of heart disease, use of genetic testing in cardiovascular medicine, and management of cardiac risk during non-cardiac surgery.

Hlatky has led several research centers, including the Cardiac Arrhythmia Patient Outcomes Research Center, the Stanford-UCSF Evidence-based Practice Center, the Donald W. Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center at Stanford, and the Stanford-Kaiser Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Center.