2020_06_16_MED_alvaro_alonso_catedra_medica

Dr. Álvaro Alonso, graduate in Medicine from the University of Navarra in 2000, has just been awarded the Chair Stephen D. Clements, Jr. Fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and research at Emory University, Atlanta (USA), after a demanding selection process.

This is a nominated Chair established in January 2018 by the O. Wayne Rollins Foundation to honor Stephen D. Clements, Jr, MD, distinguished Emory cardiologist and friend staff of the Rollins family, who dedicated his professional degree program to the prevention, research and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

"This Chair is an honor because it serves as recognition of my research in the area of cardiovascular disease epidemiology and prevention," explains Dr. Alonso. "In addition, it provides resources to invest in novel ideas in this area, support the development of students and junior investigators at my department and my School, and facilitate collaborations between different units within the university."

This recognition, which he earns at age 43, will support his research and professor at Emory University. "Having these resources is even more important now, given the negative economic impact that covid-19 can have both in terms of funding for research".

Throughout his degree program, Professor Alonso has played a very relevant role in the world medical scientific landscape by uncovering the relationships of cardiovascular risk factors with cognitive decline and dementia. He has published more than 400 scientific articles in indexed journals and is a leading member of the American Society for Epidemiological research , the American Heart association and the association American Society for the Advancement of Science.

A degree program dedicated to the research of cardiovascular diseases.

Immediately after finishing the degree program, Álvaro Alonso placed in the top 20 in the spanish medical residency program exam and took the specialization program of Preventive Medicine and Public Health in the Navarra Health Service. In 2005 he defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Navarra on nutrition and epidemiology of hypertension, with award Extraordinary doctorate, under the direction of Miguel Ángel Martínez-González. After a three-year stay at Harvard University, she obtained the place from Senior Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota in 2007. Four years ago he moved to Emory University where he obtained a Chair in Epidemiology. 

His research focuses on the nutritional, lifestyle, clinical and genetic determinants of cardiovascular disorders. He has become one of the world's reference letter epidemiologists in the study of cardiac arrhythmias, particularly atrial fibrillation. He has made significant contributions on lifestyles, clinical variables, biomarkers and genetic factors associated with atrial fibrillation. He is currently co-principal investigator, together with Dr. Estefanía Toledo, Professor of Public Health at the University of Navarra, of a project conducted in Spain on nutritional interventions for the prevention of atrial fibrillation.