Steven Shea, MD, MS

Principal Investigator

Steven Shea, MD, MS, received his A.B. from Harvard College and his M.D. from Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Presbyterian Hospital and fellowship in General Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He received an M.S. in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. He has been on the faculty at Columbia since 1984 and Division Chief from 1992 to 2014. His research is focused on cardiovascular epidemiology and medical informatics applications to chronic disease management. He is the principal investigator for the Columbia University Field Center for the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a 17-year longitudinal study of approximately 6,400 subjects (1,100 at Columbia) funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). In the Dean’s office, Dr. Shea is responsible for affiliations with Columbia University Medical Center’s teaching hospitals.

My research focus is in cardiovascular disease epidemiology, and I have led studies in both children and adults. Hypertension and blood pressure have been particular areas of interest. I have been the principal investigator for the Columbia University Field Center for the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) since 2000 and am also presently the principal investigator for an NHLBI-funded MESA ancillary study of cholesterol efflux and plaque inflammation as well as several MESA ancillary study subcontracts. MESA has been an important resource for studying subclinical predictors, endophenotypes, social factors, environmental factors including air pollution and the neighborhood social and physical environment, stress, sleep, race/ethnicity, and gender as factors influencing disparities in health-related behaviors, subclinical cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, and cardiovascular events. MESA has provided important research and career development opportunities for fellows and mentored junior faculty both at Columbia and elsewhere. I am also the principal investigator for the Division of General Medicine’s two post-doctoral fellowship training grants. I have led NIH-funded research projects continuously in the area of cardiovascular epidemiology since 1985, served on several grant review committees and editorial boards, and published a number of papers. I also served as principal investigator for the Informatics for Diabetes Education and Telemedicine (IDEATel) study, a randomized trial conducted between 2000-2009. Presently I am the principal investigator for an NHLBI-funded randomized pilot trial to test a health-kiosk based strategy to improve blood pressure control.

Select Publications

  • Shea S, Fullilove MT. Entry of black and minority students into U.S. medical schools: historical perspective and recent trends. New Engl J Med 1985;3l0:933‑940.

  • Shea S, Misra D, Ehrlich M, Field L, Francis CK. Predisposing factors for severe, uncontrolled hypertension in an inner‑city minority population. New Engl J Med 1992;327:776‑781

  • Shea S, Nickerson KG, Tenenbaum J, et al. Compensation to a department of medicine and its faculty members for the teaching of medical student and house staff. New Engl J Med 1996;334:162-167.

  • Detrano R, Guerci AD, Carr JJ, Bild DE, Burke G, Folsom AR, Liu K, Shea S, Szklo M, Bluemke DA, O’Leary DH, Tracy R, Watson K, Wong ND, Kronmal RA. Coronary calcium as a predictor of coronary events in four racial or ethnic groups. New Engl J Med 2008;358:1336-1345.

  • Shea S, Hripcsak G. Accelerating the use of electronic health records in physician practices. New Engl J Med 2010;362:192-195.

  • Shea S, Lima J, Diez-Roux A, Jorgensen NW, McClelland RL. Socioeconomic status and poor health outcome at 10 years of follow-up in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. PLoS ONE 2016;22;11(11):e0165651.

  • Shea S, Stein JH, Jorgenson NW, McClelland RL, Tascau L, Shrager S, Heinecke JW, Yvan-Charvet L, Tall AR. Cholesterol mass efflux capacity, incident cardiovascular disease, and progression of carotid plaque: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. In press.