November 17, 2016

On November 15, Dornsife SPH Dean Ana Diez Roux presented the 2016 Ancel Keys Memorial Lecture at the American Heart Association's 2016 Scientific Sessions in New Orleans.

The Ancel Keys Lecture was established in 1990 by the Council on Epidemiology, now the Council on Epidemiology and Prevention, to honor Dr. Ancel Keys. A founding member of the council, Dr. Keys had a long and distinguished career in the study of cardiovascular diseases, their correlates, causes and prevention in the United States and abroad.

Diez Roux’s talk was titled Rediscovering the role of the environment in cardiovascular health and health disparities: implications for research and policy. She reviewed the current state of knowledge regarding cardiovascular health disparities, identified gaps, and highlighted novel (and not so novel) opportunities for research, practice and policy. Diez Roux emphasized the role of environmental factors broadly defined and the implications for research and policy. She drew examples from research on neighborhood effects on cardiovascular disease to illustrate key concepts.