Dr Nizal Sarrafzadegan

Professor of Medicine/Cardiology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran & Affiliate Professor, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, Director of Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Institute, WHO Collaborating Center, Iran

Dr Nizal Sarrafzadegan is a professor of Internal Medicine & Cardiology, Isfahan University of medical Sciences in Iran, and Affiliate Professor of the Faculty of Medicine, School of Population and Public Health(SPPH) in the University of British Columbian(UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. She is currently teaching a post graduate course on “NCD Epidemiology and Prevention” in the SPPH. She is the founder director of Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Institute (ICRI), a WHO collaborating center in the EMR. She started her studies on Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) prevention, healthy lifestyle promotion and rehabilitation of cardiac patients since 1992 and published more than 450 articles and chapter books in peer-reviewed journals. She took part in more than 80 international meetings as international invited speaker or WHO advisor. She is the founder and President of the “Iranian Heart Foundation”, founder and Co-Chair of the “National Network of CVD research” and the “Food, Industry and Healthy Community” in Iran.

Her academic career combines a clinical background with strong interest in public health and preventive medicine, specifically implementation and evaluation. She has numerous multidisciplinary collaborations with investigators at international level, got multiple national and international grants and supervised PhD students at national or international levels . Prof Sarrafzadegan worked with the WHO on Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) and CVD prevention and management as technical advisor, have strong collaboration with the “World Heart Federation”, the “International Atherosclerosis Society”, the “World Hypertension League”, the “International Council of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Rehabilitation”, the “Global and EMRO-NCD alliance” etc. She is a member in the editorial or advisory board of peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of American College of Cardiology, the Nature Reviews Cardiology, International .of Cardiology among others. She is the founder and was the president of the “The Eastern Mediterranean Network of Heart health”. Prof Sarrafzadegan won the 2016 WHO/EMR State of Kuwait award for NCD prevention and control because of her extensive research in cardiovascular disease.

Her current fields of research include Improving hypertension control, Early detection of Familial hypercholesterolemia, CVD registry at national level, Personalized medicine and epigenetics in Cardiology, developing simplified risk assessment models to predict CVD, shared aspects of cancer & CVD, Air Pollution and CVD.