Mandeep R. Mehra (born December 1967 in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

) is The William Harvey Distinguished Chair in Advanced Cardiovascular Medicine and a professor of medicine at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

. He is the medical director of the Brigham Heart and Vascular Center in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, and specializes in advanced

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

, mechanical circulatory support and

cardiac transplantation A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common procedu ...

. He has served as president of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) and is the editor-in-chief of the society's journal, the '' Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation''. He was also president of the

Heart Failure Society of America The Heart Failure Society of America is an American organization of heart failure experts who have an interest in heart function and heart failure. Founded in 1995, it provides a forum for experts and patients with the aim of reducing the burde ...

Early life and career

Mandeep Rajinder Mehra was born in December 1967. After graduating in medicine from the

Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences The Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS) is India’s first rural medical college, nestled in the karmabhoomi of Mahatma Gandhi, in Sevagram. It is managed by the Kasturba Health Society. The college was earlier affiliated to t ...

in 1993, he pursued further studies in the United States with the ambition to qualify in

cardiac catheterization Cardiac catheterization (heart cath) is the insertion of a catheter into a chamber or vessel of the heart. This is done both for diagnostic and interventional purposes. A common example of cardiac catheterization is coronary catheterization that ...

Cardiology career

Narrowing of the coronary arteries, or cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV), after a heart transplant has been noted as a significant problem in terms of long-term survival. The terminology used in past research has varied, causing difficulties in interpreting which treatments benefit. In 2010, Mehra led the first international consensus document from the ISHLT working group on the classification of CAV, standardising the nomenclature used and therefore defining the best way to identify CAV. His paper on allograft vasculopathy was accepted for presentation at the ISHLT in Venice. His research focuses on the use of

intravascular ultrasound Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) or intravascular echocardiography is a medical imaging methodology using a specially designed catheter with a miniaturized ultrasound probe attached to the distal end of the catheter. The proximal end of the cath ...

and

angioscopy Angioscopy is a medical technique for visualizing the interior of blood vessels. In this technique, a flexible fibre bundle endoscope catheter is inserted directly into an artery. It can be helpful in diagnosing (e.g., arterial embolism).MDGuid ...

coronary artery disease Coronary artery disease (CAD), also called coronary heart disease (CHD), ischemic heart disease (IHD), myocardial ischemia, or simply heart disease, involves the reduction of blood flow to the heart muscle due to build-up of atherosclerotic pla ...

after heart transplantation. In addition, he has interests in new

immunosuppressive therapy Immunosuppression is a reduction of the activation or efficacy of the immune system. Some portions of the immune system itself have immunosuppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse react ...

in minority populations and the role of

artificial heart An artificial heart is a device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in the case that a heart transplant (from a deceased human or, experi ...

s and bio-markers to assess diagnosis and treatment in heart failure. Other research pursuits have included reducing side-effects of endomyocardial biopsies using

genomic Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...

and

proteomic Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. Proteins are vital parts of living organisms, with many functions such as the formation of structural fibers of muscle tissue, enzymatic digestion of food, or synthesis and replication of DNA. In ...

markers. He was also the first to define the association of suppressed

natriuretic peptide A natriuretic peptide is a peptide that induces natriuresis, which is the excretion of sodium by the kidneys. Known natriuretic peptides include the following: * atrial natriuretic peptide, also known as ANP * brain natriuretic peptide, also known ...

expression in

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...

. In 2018, Mehra published results of his research on the benefits of some

left ventricular assist device A ventricular assist device (VAD) is an electromechanical device for assisting cardiac circulation, which is used either to partially or to completely replace the function of a failing heart. The function of a VAD differs from that of an artifici ...

Surgisphere scandal

On May 1, 2020, Mehra was the lead author of a small group who published results of an analysis of data from 169 hospitals collected via a database funded by Surgisphere to assess the risk of in-hospital death among patients with cardiovascular disease infected with SARS-CoV2 in the ''

New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one. Hist ...

''. On May 22, 2020, the same group published another analysis of the Surgisphere data in ''

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823. The journal publishes original research articles, ...

'' describing outcomes in patients treated with

hydroxychloroquine Hydroxychloroquine, sold under the brand name Plaquenil among others, is a medication used to prevent and treat malaria in areas where malaria remains sensitive to chloroquine. Other uses include treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, an ...

with or without a

macrolide The Macrolides are a class of natural products that consist of a large macrocyclic lactone ring to which one or more deoxy sugars, usually cladinose and desosamine, may be attached. The lactone rings are usually 14-, 15-, or 16-membered. Macrol ...

for patients with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The latter paper resulted in the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

Director-General

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus ( ti, ቴዎድሮስ አድሓኖም ገብረኢየሱስ, sometimes spelt ti, ቴድሮስ ኣድሓኖም ገብረየሱስ, label=none; born 3 March 1965) is an Ethiopian public health official, researcher, and ...

announcing the temporary halt of hydroxychloroquine arm of its Solidarity Trial of therapies for COVID-19. The provenance and validity of the data and database on which both papers rely was questioned, and an expression of concern was published in ''The Lancet'' and in the ''NEJM''. Mehra, Ruschitzka, and Patel quickly hired an independent company to conduct an audit of the Surgisphere data. On June 4, Mehra and two of his co-authors retracted ''The Lancet'' paper that had raised caution about the safety of hydroxychloroquine, due to inability to gain access to the data in the audit. “We can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources,” Mehra and his co-authors wrote. As the ''NEJM'' study used data from Surgisphere, the authors also withdrew that study. In the meantime, the same authors pulled a pre-print publication claiming effectiveness of

ivermectin Ivermectin (, '' EYE-vər-MEK-tin'') is an antiparasitic drug. After its discovery in 1975, its first uses were in veterinary medicine to prevent and treat heartworm and acariasis. Approved for human use in 1987, today it is used to treat inf ...

, an

anthelmintic Anthelmintics or antihelminthics are a group of antiparasitic drugs that expel parasitic worms (helminths) and other internal parasites from the body by either stunning or killing them and without causing significant damage to the host. They may a ...

, in treating coronavirus from the pre-print server, as this paper also relied on the same Surgisphere data source. However, the study had already led to Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Colombia and Chile using the drug for COVID-19 treatment. Mehra apologised for rushing to publish during the COVID-19 crisis: "I did not do enough to ensure that the data source was appropriate for this use. For that, and for all the disruptions—both directly and indirectly—I am truly sorry." Dr. Richard Horton,

editor in chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of The Lancet, called the paper a fabrication and "a monumental fraud". Dr.

Eric Rubin Eric J. Rubin is an American microbiologist, infectious disease specialist, and is currently the editor-in-chief of the ''New England Journal of Medicine''. He is also an adjunct professor of immunology and infectious diseases and was formerly th ...

, editor in chief of NEJM, said "We shouldn’t have published this". Mehra was introduced to Surgisphere founder Sapan Desai by colleague Amit Patel. It was later found that Desai and Patel were brothers-in-law, and that Patel's position at the University of Utah was terminated.

Appointments

He became the William Harvey Distinguished Chair in Advanced Cardiovascular Medicine and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and medical director of the Brigham Heart and Vascular Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He specializes in advanced

, mechanical circulatory support and

. Mehra served as president of the ISHLT in 2008-2009 and became editor-in-chief of the society's journal, the ''Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation''. In 2016, he was appointed president of the Heart Failure Society of America.

Selected publications

He has published more than 500 manuscripts, abstracts, and book chapters in areas of

immunosuppression Immunosuppression is a reduction of the activation or efficacy of the immune system. Some portions of the immune system itself have immunosuppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse react ...

genomic medicine Medical genetics is the branch tics in that human genetics is a field of scientific research that may or may not apply to medicine, while medical genetics refers to the application of genetics to medical care. For example, research on the caus ...

, cardiac

transplant rejection Transplant rejection occurs when Organ transplant, transplanted tissue is rejected by the recipient's immune system, which destroys the transplanted tissue. Transplant rejection can be lessened by determining the molecular similitude between don ...

, guidelines for listing patients for a heart transplant, and in mechanical circulatory support.

Papers

* *

Books

''Current Advances in Heart Transplantation: An Issue of Heart Failure Clinics''

Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...

(2007), .
''History of International Heart and Lung Transplantation''
co-authored with James K. Kirklin and Lori J. West, Elsevier (2010).
Clinical Challenges in Heart Failure
Clinical Pub Serv (2010), .
''Emergency Cardiac Care 2012: From the ED to the CCU, An Issue of Cardiology Clinics''
co-authored with Amal Mattu,

Elsevier Health Sciences Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...

(2012), .
''Oxford Textbook of Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation''
co-authored with Michael J. Domanski and Marc A. Pfeffer, Oxford University Press (2016), (.

Chapters

Chapter 12, "Management of Hypertension in Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction"
co-authored with F. Siddiqi, and K. Thanavaro in ''Evidence-based Management of Hypertension'', edited by Matthew R Weir, Gutenberg Press (2010), .