This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD: trailblazer, leader in preventive cardiology
Early in her career, she identified preventive cardiology as vital to heart disease research.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Combining a passion for women’s health, teaching, cardiovascular research and family life, C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD, and a member of the Preventive Cardiology section of Cardiology Today’s Editorial Board, has carved a unique niche for herself.
The prolific educator, researcher, cardiologist and lecturer has been at the forefront of many health and research initiatives, particularly ones that deal with women’s heart and health issues. Bairey Merz has published more than 150 scientific articles and has ultimately been recognized as one of the field’s leading experts on preventive cardiology, women’s heart disease and mental stress.
WISE initiative and more
|
Chair of the Women’s Ischemic Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) initiative, Director of the Women’s Heart Center and the Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center, |
A leader and pioneer in women’s cardiovascular health, Bairey Merz has spent decades studying heart disease, exercise and stress management and mental health.
Bairey Merz currently serves as the chair of the Women’s Ischemic Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) initiative, an ongoing investigation supported by the National Institutes of Health-National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Bairey Merz and her investigative team have been examining CHD and approaches to its diagnosis in women for more than a decade.
Along with her research team, Bairey Merz noticed an opportunity to advance the knowledge base of preventive cardiology and also to further study heart disease in women.
“To be perfectly frank, the reason that we got interested in women and heart disease was because that is where the money was,” Bairey Merz said. “There was a Request for Application that asked for investigators to study the pathophysiology of ischemic heart disease in women. As experienced investigators specializing in ischemic heart disease, mental stress, lipids, coronary artery and endothelial function, we successfully competed and received the grants.”
The WISE 1 and 2 studies are ongoing, and a WISE 3 study is currently planned. Bairey Merz has also been involved in numerous initiatives and campaigns to raise awareness of preventive medicine, heart health and women’s heart disease. A member of the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, the American Society of Preventive Cardiology and others, Bairey Merz is never at a loss for time spent advocating.
“I worked with the AHA in the 90s on a campaign to increase awareness of women and heart disease,” she said. “They did a nice job, but it essentially went nowhere. It was just a blip on the radar screen. The time was not right.”
As women’s heart issues were further studied, the collective focus of the community shifted to a more interested stance. Bairey Merz was already there to help lead.
“Going after the issue of women and heart disease is something that I’m very happy about because it doesn’t appear to be running out of steam,” she said. “Women are now in the community with sufficient numbers of decision-making positions, and they are not going to let this campaign go away or become a flavor of the month. Given that women comprise more than 50% of the population, it really should not be a ‘special population’ issue.”
Bairey Merz is currently working on another NIH–supported randomized controlled trial examining the effects of acupuncture on the reduction of cardiac death in patients with CHD.
“I am very excited about it; our pilot data were very good and suggested that by altering efferent and afferent nerve traffic between the brain and the heart and blood vessels, we can actually reduce the mechanisms of ventricular fibrillation,” Bairey Merz said. “What if it works? Would you like to have a $60,000 defibrillator implanted, for which there have been malfunctions, recalls and bum leads, or would you rather simply see your local acupuncture specialist?”
Early career and milestone
Bairey Merz received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, after which she was chief medical resident at the University of California, San Francisco. Bairey Merz also completed residencies in both clinical and nuclear cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she is currently the director of the Women’s Heart Center and also of the Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center. Bairey Merz is a lecturer and professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Bairey Merz has spent the better part of her career focusing on preventive cardiology, even before it was recognized as an important area of the field. She was one of the first leaders in the subspecialty.
“When I was training, I was the only person interested in learning how to lower cholesterol levels,” Bairey Merz told Cardiology Today. “When statins first came out, few were interested in them except for endocrinologists. It was the same with aspects within nutrition and mental stress.”
Recognizing that these factors played an important role in the evolution of not only women’s heart health and treatment but men’s heart health as well are accomplishments Bairey Merz ranks as important in her career.
“I’m very proud that early on in my training, I identified preventive cardiology as something that was really going to change heart care for patients and really change not only the field of cardiology but also of medicine,” Bairey Merz said. “The reality is that now, when we look at large studies with these variables, we know that we can reduce recurrent events by 80% to 90% if we can implement optimal preventive treatment strategies. I am really glad that I invested in that territory and am just delighted to see preventive cardiology grow by leaps and bounds.”
Family first
When she does manage to get away from the office, Bairey Merz enjoys the role of mother and wife.
Bairey Merz is married to Robert H. Merz, MD, FACC, a cardiologist with the Pacific Heart Institute in Santa Monica, Calif., and credits him as a full partner with her in all aspects of their home and professional life. They are the parents of three daughters, all of whom are nationally-ranked swimmers, runners or fencers who seem to be following in their mother’s footsteps.
When asked about hobbies, she replied “I am a sort of professional mother,” she said. “That is to say, because of all of the things that make us the people that we are. I spend a lot of time with my family, on my family and for my family as my hobbies.”
She joked that “since having children, I don’t really have hobbies anymore. I used to show horses and was an accomplished swimmer and marathon runner. I don’t really do any of that anymore, but I hope to when the kids are launched. My health is good, and I hope to live a long life to revisit some of these things at some point.” – by Eric Raible