Emily S. Lau, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, a cardiologist and investigator at Mass General Brigham in Boston, has been selected to receive the American Heart Association’s 2026 Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Research Goes Red® Award. The award will be presented during the Association’s Scientific Sessions 2026, to be held Nov. 6-9 in Chicago, a premier global exchange of cardiovascular science. The presentation will take place at the annual Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Research Goes Red® Award for Best Scientific Article on Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke in Women session on Saturday, Nov. 7.
The award, named in honor of Nanette K. Wenger, M.D., FAHA, a pioneering figure in women’s cardiovascular medicine, recognizes the best research article focused on cardiovascular disease and stroke in women published in one of the Association’s peer-reviewed journals during the previous year. Dr. Lau was selected for her manuscript, “Contemporary Burden of Cardiovascular Disease in Pregnancy: Insights from a Real-World Pregnancy Electronic Health Record Cohort,” published online in Circulation on Oct. 6, 2025.
Dr. Lau and her colleagues created a large, multi-institutional cohort using electronic health records to examine changes in cardiovascular health and pregnancy-related cardiovascular complications over nearly two decades. The analysis included 56,833 pregnancies among 38,996 individuals treated between 2001 and 2019. The study found that maternal cardiovascular disease was present in 4% of pregnancies overall, or 8% after adjusting for age. The age-adjusted prevalence increased 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, or 17% after adjusting for age, and also increased during the study period.
Cardiovascular complications within one year after pregnancy were more common among individuals who entered pregnancy with cardiovascular conditions or risk factors, such as high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes or obesity. Complications were also disproportionately higher among non-Hispanic Black women. The findings highlight the period before, during and after pregnancy as an important opportunity 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. “By documenting how cardiovascular disease and pregnancy-related complications have increased over time, this study identifies an important opportunity to recognize risk earlier, address disparities and help more women protect their heart health throughout their lives.”
Submissions for the award were evaluated by 32 expert peer reviewers for scientific impact, innovation, methodology, and quality of data and evidence. Dr. Lau’s manuscript was selected from 130 submissions from 18 countries published between June 1, 2025, and May 29, 2026.
“It is a tremendous honor to receive an award bearing Dr. Wenger’s name and to share this recognition with my co-authors,” said Dr. Lau. “Our findings show that more individuals are entering pregnancy with cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease, and pregnancy-related cardiovascular complications are also increasing in parallel. Pregnancy provides a critical opportunity to identify risk, strengthen prevention and help women build better cardiovascular health across their lifetime.”
Dr. Lau is co-director of the Mass General Brigham Women’s Heart Health Program and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research examines how biological sex differences and female-specific risk factors contribute to cardiovascular disease, with work spanning pregnancy, infertility, menopause and heart failure. She serves on the Heart Association’s Women in Cardiology Committee and is a member of The Menopause Society’s board of trustees. Her research is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the American Heart Association, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and the Tianqiao & Chrissy Chen Institute.
The recognition underscores the growing burden of cardiovascular disease in pregnancy and the need for systemic changes in prenatal and postpartum care. Additional multimedia is available on the release link. For more information about the American Heart Association, visit heart.org or heart.org, and for stroke-related resources, stroke.org. The original release is available on www.newmediawire.com.
