Anubha Agarwal, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division, has much to be thankful for, including the recent addition of her son born on January 1st of this year.
She attributes much of her current success to her time as an NIH Fogarty fellow from 2017-2018 while based in India. The Fogarty Global Health Training Programs offers a one-year mentored clinical research training opportunity for doctoral students and post-doctoral candidates from the U.S. and low and middle-income countries (LMICs), sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (Fogarty International Center) in partnership with several NIH Institutes and Offices.
Dr. Agarwal was recently invited to participate in the 20th Anniversary of the Global Health Fellows and Scholars Program at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. She participated on a panel with other early-stage investigators and had the opportunity to share how the fellowship was pivotal in establishing her career as a global cardiovascular physician-scientist. During her time as a Fogarty Fellow, Dr. Agarwal led a team to study the effect of a quality improvement toolkit among 1,400 participants hospitalized with heart failure in Kerala, demonstrating improvement of rates of guideline-directed medical therapy in the intervention group.
My Fogarty fellowship laid the foundation for my current NIH Pathway to Independence (K99/R00) Award. My Fogarty fellowship was one of the most impactful years of my life, both personally and professionally.
Anubha Agarwal, MD
The prestigious K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award provides her with the necessary advanced training in implementation science, clinical trial methods, and regulatory science for global pharmacological clinical trials to become an independent investigator and leader in global heart failure clinical trials with expertise in cardiovascular implementation science.
Dr. Agarwal’s research program focuses on developing, implementing, and evaluating a polypill-based implementation strategy for patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction in South Asia. The proposed polypill combines four different classes of guideline-recommended medications into one pill, transforming the heart failure care paradigm with simplified care.
I am lucky to have a dream job here at WashU as a global cardiovascular physician-scientist, a career that I didn’t think was possible as an internal medicine resident interested in combining both cardiovascular medicine and global health during my Fogarty Fellowship. I spend my time thinking about ways to improve people’s lives all over the world, including in St. Louis, to improve global health, public health, and population health.
Anubha Agarwal, MD
