Emelia J. Benjamin MD, ScM

Interim Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Louise Coffman Professor

Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine

73 Mt Wayte Ave | (617) 638-8968
Emelia Benjamin
Sections

Cardiovascular Medicine

Centers

Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute

Framingham Heart Study

Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research

Biography

Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM, FACC, FAHA, received her AB at Harvard, her MD at Case Western Reserve University, and her Epidemiology ScM at Harvard School of Public Health. She is a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University and is a cardiologist at Boston Medical Center. She is a Robert Dawson Evans Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine.

She is author of over 800 peer-reviewed publications that focus on the genetics, epidemiology, and prognosis of a variety of cardiovascular conditions and markers including atrial fibrillation, vascular function, and systemic inflammation. She has been continuously NIH funded since 1998, and currently is multi-Principal Investigator on an R01 atrial fibrillation grant [2R01HL092577], several chronic pain grants, and is the Training Director on the Boston University American Heart Association Strategically Focused Research Network on Cardio-Oncology. She is an internationally recognized expert on the epidemiology of atrial fibrillation. Dr. Benjamin has Co-Chaired the NIH National Heart Lung and Blood Institutes’ (NHLBI) Atrial Fibrillation Working Group, which advised the NHLBI’s atrial fibrillation research agenda, and resulted in 6 publications.

Dr. Benjamin has conducted research at the Framingham Study since 1988. She is a Member of the Executive Committee, and is Co-Director of the Medical Endpoints Committee. She was Principal Investigator of the grant that recruited the second generation of the Framingham Study's ethnic/racial minority cohort, the Omni Study.

In addition to her research, she is the inaugural Associate Provost for Faculty Development for Boston University Medical Campus, and the inaugural Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Diversity, BU Department of Medicine. She co-designed and co-leads Faculty Development Programs for Early, Mid-Career, Under-Represented Ethnic and Racial, Women, and Clinical Leaders. In 2023 she completed the Columbia University Advanced Coaching Certification.

A passionate and dedicated mentor, she has won local and national awards for mentoring, education, and research. She was inducted into the Association of American Physicians and she won the 2020 Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award.

An active volunteer for the American Heart Association since 1992, she has served on a variety of local and national Committees. She is Past-Chair of the American Heart Association’s Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Council and Study Section, and the annual Heart and Stroke Statistical Update. She received the 2015 Paul Dudley White Award, the 2016 AHA Gold Heart Award, the 2016 Population Research Prize, the 2019 Laennec Clinician/ Educator Lecturer, and the Genomics and Precision Medicine 2019 Distinguished Achievement Award, and the 2022 Distinguished Scientist Award.

Other Positions

Education

MD, Case Western Reserve University

ScM, Harvard School of Public Health

Publications

Published on 2/24/2026

Vinter N, Johnsen SP, Benjamin EJ, Frost L, Trinquart L. Rising burden of atrial fibrillation relative to other major cardiovascular diseases: nationwide trends over 2000-2022 and projections to 2040. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2026 Feb 24. PMID: 41733205.

Published on 1/28/2026

Atzema CL, Cox JL, Cheung CC, Coll-Vinent B, Benjamin EJ, Jackevicius CA, Vinson DR. Comparing Guidelines for Atrial Fibrillation: Focus on Emergency Medicine. Ann Emerg Med. 2026 Apr; 87(4):435-450. PMID: 41603838.

Published on 1/7/2026

Vad OB, van Vreeswijk N, Yassin AS, Blaauw Y, Paludan-Müller C, Kanters JK, Graff C, Schotten U, Benjamin EJ, Svendsen JH, Rienstra M. Atrial cardiomyopathy: markers and outcomes. Eur Heart J. 2026 Jan 07; 47(2):235-246. PMID: 41092306.

Published on 12/10/2025

Hamel-Sellman DJ, Prescott BR, Korzinski TJ, Xanthakis V, Cooper LL, Hamburg NM, Tsao CW, Benjamin EJ, Vasan RS, Mitchell GF. Relations of Artificial Intelligence Vascular Age With Cardiometabolic Disease Progression: The Framingham Heart Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2025 Dec 16; 14(24):e044872. PMID: 41368833.

Published on 11/18/2025

Tasdighi E, Yao Z, Dardari ZA, Jha KK, Osuji N, Rajan T, Boakye E, Matsushita K, Simonsick EM, Lima JAC, Lloyd-Jones DM, Cohen DL, Appel LJ, Khera A, Hall ME, Rodriguez CJ, Judd S, Cole SA, Ramachandran VS, Benjamin EJ, Lotufo PA, Bittencourt MS, El Khoudary SR, Thurston RC, Derby CA, Psaty BM, Eaton CB, LaMonte MJ, Cawthon PM, Orwoll ES, Bhatnagar A, DeFilippis AP, Blaha MJ. Association between cigarette smoking status, intensity, and cessation duration with long-term incidence of nine cardiovascular and mortality outcomes: The Cross-Cohort Collaboration (CCC). PLoS Med. 2025 Nov; 22(11):e1004561. PMID: 41252354.

Published on 11/17/2025

Baradaran H, Pinheiro A, Benjamin EJ, Beiser A, Seshadri S, Demissie S, Romero JR. Circulating Markers of Inflammation and Endothelial Dysfunction Associated With Increased Progression of Internal Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in the Population-Based Framingham Heart Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2025 Nov 18; 14(22):e040460. PMID: 41246806.

Published on 11/15/2025

Pope MK, Chugh H, Truyen TTTT, Mathias M, Uy-Evanado A, Lin H, Atar D, Bosson N, Reinier K, Benjamin EJ, Chugh SS. Dynamic Risk Trajectories for Sudden Cardiac Arrest: The Role of Recurrent Cardiovascular Events. medRxiv. 2025 Nov 15. PMID: 41292644.

Published on 11/13/2025

Hategeka C, Benjamin EJ, Preis SR. Association of Lipoprotein(a) With Atrial Fibrillation in the Framingham Heart Study. JACC Adv. 2025 Dec; 4(12 Pt 2):102343. PMID: 41237637.

Published on 11/6/2025

Naghavi M, Azimi A, Atlas K, Reeves AP, Zhang C, Wasserthal J, Mirjalili SR, Mozafarybazargany M, Hashemi A, Atlas T, Henschke CI, Yankelevitz DF, Mechanick JI, Branch AD, Fried SK, Nasir K, Fayad ZA, McConnell MV, Vliegenthart R, Maron DJ, Narula J, Williams KA, Shah PK, Budoff MJ, Levy D, Benjamin EJ, Kloner RA, Wong ND. Opportunistic AI-derived adiposity measures from coronary artery calcium scans predict new-onset type 2 diabetes in adults without obesity or hyperglycemia: insights from the AI-CVD study within MESA. Diabetol Metab Syndr. 2025 Nov 06; 17(1):419. PMID: 41199381.

Published on 11/4/2025

Vinter N, Johnsen SP, Benjamin EJ, Lip GYH, Frost L. Temporal trends in loss of expected lifetime associated with cardiovascular complications following newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation: a Danish nationwide cohort study from 2000 to 2022. Eur Heart J Qual Care Clin Outcomes. 2025 Nov 04; 11(7):1023-1032. PMID: 40350665.

View full list of 968 publications.