Emelia J. Benjamin MD, ScM
Interim Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Louise Coffman Professor
Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine
73 Mt Wayte Ave | (617) 638-8968emelia.benjamin@bmc.org
emelia@bu.edu
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 the Jay and Louise Coffman Professor in Vascular Medicine Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine.
She is author of over 950 peer-reviewed publications that focus on the epidemiology, genetics, and prognosis of a variety of cardiovascular conditions and markers including atrial fibrillation, vascular function, systemic inflammation, digital health, and chronic pain. She has been continuously NIH funded since 1998, and currently is contact multi-Principal Investigator on the NIH Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH 1K12AR085635). She is an internationally recognized expert on the epidemiology of atrial fibrillation. Dr. Benjamin 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 was the inaugural Associate Provost for Faculty Development for Boston University Medical Campus (until medical campus Provosts were eliminated at BUMC 2025), and the inaugural Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs, 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, diversity, 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, the 2022 Distinguished Scientist Award, and the 2025 Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentoring Award.
Other Positions
Websites
Boston Medical Center Provider Profile
Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute Training Program
Building Your CV and Criteria for Academic Promotion | Presentation
Committing to the Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation
Dr Emelia J. Benjamin: Atrial Fibrillation Is Common and Increasing in Incidence
Education
MD, Case Western Reserve University
ScM, Harvard School of Public Health
Publications
Azimi A, Atlas K, Reeves AP, Zhang C, Wasserthal J, Mirjalili SR, Atlas T, Henschke CI, Yankelevitz DF, Zulueta JJ, Mechanick JI, Branch A, Ma N, Yip R, Fan W, Roy SK, Nasir K, Molloi S, Fayad ZA, McConnell MV, Kakadiaris IA, Abela GS, Vliegenthart R, Maron DJ, Narula J, Williams KA, Shah PK, Budoff MJ, Levy D, Benjamin EJ, Wong ND, Naghavi M. AI-quantified Myosteatosis at CAC CT for Prediction of Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Radiol Cardiothorac Imaging. 2026 Aug; 8(4):e250214. PMID: 42390348.
Published on 7/19/2026Vettorato E, Bell S, Benjamin EJ, Estrada AH, Köster L. Anaesthetic management of dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease: results of a questionnaire survey of veterinary anaesthesiologists. J Small Anim Pract. 2026 Jul 19. PMID: 42473271.
Published on 6/23/2026Pope 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. J Am Heart Assoc. 2026 Jul 07; 15(13):e049853. PMID: 42333668.
Published on 6/4/2026Lim KN, Benjamin EJ, Hategeka C, Cole MB. Impact of a Telehealth Navigator Intervention on Hypertension Control Among Black Patients Served by Federally Qualified Health Centers. J Gen Intern Med. 2026 Jun 04. PMID: 42243430.
Published on 5/20/2026Frederiksen TC, Nadarajah R, Christiansen MK, Wu J, Gale CP, Benjamin EJ, Olsen A, Andersen MK, Hansen T, Grarup N, Dahm CC, Jensen HK. Interaction between clinical and genetic risk of atrial fibrillation in the danish diet, cancer and health cohort. Open Heart. 2026 May 20; 13(1). PMID: 42161427.
Published on 5/20/2026Fisher N, Xue L, Smith KK, Tao B, Cunha JA, Ladenheim S, Moreira-Bouchard JD, Milstone ZJ, Zhebrun A, Zhang X, Jun GR, Stein TD, Ang TFA, Farrer LA, Farb MG, Padera RF, Benjamin EJ, Levy D, Gopal DM, Isaac RS, Lenburg ME, Choi SH, Fetterman JL. Mitochondrial genetic variation across tissues of the human body. Nucleic Acids Res. 2026 May 20; 54(10). PMID: 42179041.
Published on 5/18/2026Goldberg RL, Zhao Y, Murabito J, Cheng S, Vasan RS, Levy D, Mitchell GF, Benjamin EJ, Lau ES. Association of cardiometabolic disease with subclinical cardiac remodeling in men vs women in the Framingham Heart Study. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2026 May 18. PMID: 42150810.
Published on 5/4/2026Jurgens S, Enzan N, Dinsmore I, Choi SH, Luo J, Lipov A, Hartle C, Wang X, Marston N, Weng LC, Melloni G, Chalazan B, Gray M, Pirruccello J, Diaz A, Chaffin M, Ornelas-Loredo A, Tang O, Darbar F, Kany S, Chen Y, von Falkenhausen A, Morrison A, Natale A, Tveit A, Geelhoed B, Cade B, Wagoner DV, Haase D, Soliman EZ, Davogustto G, Calkins H, Anderson J, Brody J, Barnard J, Hokanson J, Smith J, Bis J, Young K, Johnson L, Long L, Risch L, Gula L, Kwee L, Kühne M, Preuss M, Gupta N, Nafissi N, Smith N, Nilsson P, van der Harst P, Wells Q, Judy R, Schnabel R, Johnson R, Smit RAJ, Gabriel S, Knight S, Furukawa T, Min YI, Yoneda Z, Laksman Z, Alonso A, Psaty B, Albert C, Arking D, Roden D, Chasman D, Rader D, Conen D, McManus D, Fatkin D, Boerwinkle E, Marcus G, Christophersen I, Smith JG, Roberts J, Raffield L, Shoemaker MB, Cho M, Cutler M, Chung M, Olesen M, Sinner M, Sotoodehnia N, Kirchhof P, Loos RJF, Nazarian S, Mohanty S, Damrauer S, Kaab S, Heckbert S, Redline S, Shah S, Tanaka T, Ebana Y, Lubitz S, Lunetta K, Benjamin E, Rienstra M, Figtree G, Darbar D, Bezzina C, Ruff C, Sabatine M, Mirshahi T, Ellinor P. Rare coding variant architecture and gene discovery from 130,000 sequenced cases of atrial fibrillation. Res Sq. 2026 May 04. PMID: 42147184.
Published on 5/2/2026Wong DH, Lui JK, Benjamin EJ. Integrating coaching activities into the educator portfolio. Acad Med. 2026 May 02. PMID: 42068565.
Published on 4/28/2026DiNicola AM, Conley CM, Benjamin EJ, Zumwalt AC. Design thinking: transforming institutions while developing leaders. Acad Med. 2026 Apr 28. PMID: 42048238.
Media Mentions
Published on 12/23/2023
Top 5 Heart Failure Content of 2023
Published on 9/27/2023
Framingham Heart Study celebrates 75th anniversary
Published on 7/23/2023
Dr Emelia J. Benjamin: Atrial Fibrillation Is Common and Increasing in Incidence
Published on 6/4/2023
ASPC announces program for annual Congress on CVD Prevention
Published on 12/21/2022
Left Atrial Dysfunction Tied to Cerebral Infarcts in Absence of Prior AF, Stroke
Published on 12/7/2022
Published on 10/14/2020
People of Color, and Women Remain Significantly Underrepresented in Cardiovascular Healthcare
Published on 6/15/2020
Vitamin K may offer protective health benefits as we age, study suggests
Published on 4/13/2020
Brookline resident honored by Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine
Published on 12/5/2019
Boston University Professor Emelia Benjamin Earns Two Awards From the American Heart Association
View full list of 18 media mentions.