Rishi Wadhera
Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management
Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Departments
Department of Health Policy and Management
Other Positions
Associate Professor of Medicine
Medicine-Beth Israel Deaconess, Harvard Medical School
Related Links
Biography
Dr. Rishi K. Wadhera, M.D., M.P.P., M.Phil. is a cardiologist, health policy researcher, and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He serves as Associate Director of the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research—one of the nation’s premier cardiovascular outcomes and policy research organizations—and founded and leads its Section of Health Policy Research.
Dr. Wadhera leads a large, NIH-funded research enterprise focused on health policy, population health, and cardiovascular outcomes. Under his leadership, the Section of Health Policy has grown into a multidisciplinary team of 15 clinician investigators, postdoctoral fellows, biostatisticians, and research staff, and is now among the leading programs in the United States studying how national health policies—including the Affordable Care Act, Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare reforms, and safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP—impact access, affordability, quality, and clinical outcomes. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, including first- and senior-author work in leading journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, and JAMA, and currently serves as Principal Investigator on three NIH R01 grants and the American Heart Association Established Investigator Award. In 2026, he was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) in recognition of his contributions to clinical and health policy research. Dr. Wadhera’s work has been deeply influential on the national stage and has directly informed federal health policy and clinical guidelines. His expertise has been sought out by U.S. policymakers, including senior leaders at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Congressional committees. His research has been widely cited in Congressional testimony, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission reports, and American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology clinical practice guidelines and scientific statements, and has been featured in major national media outlets, including the New York Times, NPR, and NBC News.
A defining feature of Dr. Wadhera’s work is mentorship and faculty development. He has mentored more than 40 junior investigators—including junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, residents, and medical students—who have collectively first-authored >110 publications and secured competitive career development awards, including NIH K23 and American Heart Association Awards, through his mentorship. Many of his mentees have gone on to independent academic careers across the country. He currently serves as primary research mentor to more than a dozen trainees and has received the Harvard Medical School Excellence in Mentoring Award. In addition to his research and mentorship roles, Dr. Wadhera serves on national advisory panels for the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance, contributes to CMS technical expert panels, and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Dr. Wadhera received his M.D. from the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine and an M.Phil. as a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge. He completed his residency and cardiovascular fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where he also earned an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Education and Training
-
M.D., Medicine
Mayo Clinic School of Medicine -
M.P.P., Healthy Policy
Harvard Kennedy School of Government -
M.Phil., Public Health
University of Cambridge -
, Internal Medicine Residency
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School -
, Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Awards and Honors
-
Harvard Medical School Excellence in Mentoring Award, 2023
Harvard Medical School -
Harvard Medical School Program Award for Culture of Excellence in Mentoring, 2022
Harvard Medical School -
Harvard Kennedy School Jerome Grossman Health Policy Fellowship, 2016
Harvard Kennedy School -
Harvard Medical School Resident Teaching Excellence Award, 2014
Harvard Medical School -
Gates Cambridge Scholarship, 2008
University of Cambridge -
Mayo Clinic Merit Scholarship, 2006
Mayo Clinic
