Lisa Freed, MD

Lisa A. Freed, MD, is a general cardiologist and the director of the Women’s Heart and Vascular Program at Yale New Haven Hospital. She is determined to change the fact that heart disease remains the leading killer of American women. “There is no greater honor than to save a person's life, and many of the treatments available in cardiology are able to do so,” she says.

The Women’s Heart and Vascular Program is dedicated to screening, educating and treating women at risk for, or with established heart disease. “I will often couple treatment plans with pertinent studies that support the approach I am recommending,” she says, adding that she always makes sure patients understand their options. “It is so important to offer reasonable hope and steady support to alleviate the anxiety that often accompanies a new cardiac diagnosis. My strength is a willingness to listen and explore problems fully.”

Dr. Freed, an assistant clinical professor of medicine (cardiology) at Yale School of Medicine, recently launched a new research arm to pursue clinically based issues. In her past research, she has been particularly interested in mitral valve prolapse, which occurs when the valve between the heart’s upper left and lower left chambers doesn’t close properly. Her work helped to properly characterize the prevalence of this disease and established the groundwork for the identification in 2015 of the first gene to be associated with the disease.