The American Heart Association selected Emily S. Lau, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, a cardiologist and investigator at Mass General Brigham in Boston, to receive the 2026 Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Research Goes Red® Award. The award will be presented during the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2026, scheduled for Nov. 6–9 in Chicago, during the annual session honoring the best scientific article on cardiovascular disease and stroke in women on Saturday, Nov. 7.
The award is named for Nanette K. Wenger, M.D., FAHA, in recognition of her pioneering career in women’s cardiovascular disease. It is granted annually to the best research article or articles focused on cardiovascular disease and stroke in women that were published in the Association’s peer-reviewed scientific journals during the previous year. The Association’s Research Goes Red® initiative seeks to engage and empower women to participate in health research.
Dr. Lau was selected for the award for her manuscript titled “Contemporary Burden of Cardiovascular Disease in Pregnancy: Insights from a Real-World Pregnancy Electronic Health Record Cohort,” which was published online in the American Heart Association journal Circulation on Oct. 6, 2025.
For the analysis, Dr. Lau and colleagues assembled a large, multi-institutional cohort derived from electronic health records to evaluate changes in cardiovascular health and pregnancy-related cardiovascular complications over nearly two decades. The cohort comprised 56,833 pregnancies among 38,996 individuals treated between 2001 and 2019. The study leveraged real-world clinical data to assess both baseline maternal cardiovascular disease and complications occurring during and after pregnancy.
The investigators found that maternal cardiovascular disease was present in 4% of pregnancies overall; after adjusting for age, the prevalence increased to 8%. Age-adjusted prevalence of maternal cardiovascular disease rose from 1% in 2001 to 7% in 2019, indicating an upward trend in the burden of preexisting cardiovascular conditions among people entering pregnancy.
Pregnancy-related cardiovascular complications — defined in the study to include maternal death, major adverse cardiovascular events and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy — occurred in 15% of pregnancies overall, rising to 17% after age adjustment. Rates of these complications increased over the study period.
Complications within one year postpartum were more common among individuals who entered pregnancy with established cardiovascular conditions or risk factors such as high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes or obesity. The study also reported that non-Hispanic Black women experienced disproportionately higher rates of pregnancy-related cardiovascular complications, highlighting racial disparities in maternal cardiovascular outcomes.
The findings emphasize the prenatal, peripartum and postpartum periods as critical opportunities to identify cardiovascular risk and to link patients with preventive care. By documenting increasing prevalence of maternal cardiovascular disease and rising pregnancy-related complications over time, the study supports integrating cardiovascular risk assessment into routine care before, during and after pregnancy to reduce adverse outcomes and address disparities.
Jennifer Hall, Ph.D., FAHA, chief of data science and analytics at the American Heart Association, noted that the work documents increases in disease and complications and identifies an opportunity to recognize risk earlier, address disparities and improve long-term heart health for women.
Dr. Lau serves as co-director of the Mass General Brigham Women’s Heart Health Program and as assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is director of the Cardiometabolic Health and Hormones Clinic and program director for the Women’s Heart Health Fellowship at Mass General Brigham. Dr. Lau also serves on the American Heart Association’s Women in Cardiology Committee and is involved with The Menopause Society’s board and scientific program committee.
Her clinical-translational research investigates how biological sex differences and female-specific risk factors contribute to cardiovascular disease. Her work integrates multidimensional molecular profiling, imaging, exercise physiology and data science with large-scale cohorts, electronic health record analyses and patient-oriented studies. Her research spans cardiovascular health across women’s life stages, including pregnancy, infertility, menopause and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
Dr. Lau’s research has received support from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the American Heart Association, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and the Tianqiao & Chrissy Chen Institute. Her honors include multiple early-career awards and named scholar awards.
Submissions for the award were reviewed by 32 expert peer reviewers who evaluated manuscripts for scientific impact, innovation, methodology and the quality of data and evidence supporting conclusions. Dr. Lau’s manuscript was chosen from 130 submissions representing 18 countries, covering articles published in the Association’s peer-reviewed journals between June 1, 2025, and May 29, 2026.
Multimedia associated with the news release is available from the American Heart Association newsroom. For more coverage of Scientific Sessions 2026, follow the Association’s news channels and Scientific Sessions media resources. For media inquiries, the American Heart Association provides contact details through its communications and media relations office.