Martha Daviglus

Martha Daviglus

Martha Daviglus, a bilingual and bicultural physician/epidemiologist of Hispanic origin, is the Edmund Foley Professor of Medicine and executive director of the Institute for Minority Health Research. Her research is focused on the epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases and related chronic conditions and health disparities.

She is the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on many NIH-sponsored longitudinal cohort studies, including the Chicago Field Center for the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos — the largest, most in-depth longitudinal cohort study of this fast-growing underrepresented population — and the Illinois Precision Medicine Consortium, an enrollment site for the national All of Us Research Program.

The HCHS/SOL study revealed that about 80% and 71% of Hispanic/Latino men and women, respectively, had adverse levels of at least one major cardiovascular risk factor at baseline. Moreover, 29% of men and 27% of women had an increase in number of adverse risk factors after six years.