Vandana Sachdev

Dr. Sachdev joined the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences (DCVS) as Associate Director overseeing the Adult and Pediatric Research Program in October 2024. She joined the NHLBI Cardiology Branch in 1998 as a Senior Staff Fellow and became the Director of the Echocardiography Lab in 2001. As a Senior Research Clinician, Dr. Sachdev’s most important research contribution has been her role in phenotyping cardiopulmonary aspects of sickle cell disease (SCD) and defining their impact on adverse outcomes in these patients. Her work has highlighted the effects of increased pulmonary pressures and diastolic dysfunction on sickle cell morbidity and mortality and led to the development of a phenotypic risk score to predict mortality in patients with SCD. In addition, her cardiac imaging lab in the NIH intramural program has performed comprehensive cardiac imaging for NHLBI and all institutes at the NIH Clinical Center. Additionally, through her work in a recurring extramural DCVS detail over the past seven years, Dr. Sachdev took on a highly effective leadership role in creating an initiative focused on heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Her team’s work led to two NHLBI RFAs and a partnership with eight pharmaceutical companies and non-profit organizations (via AMP Heart Failure). She serves as the Scientific Lead for this NHLBI heart failure program, called HeartShare, a high-profile scientific initiative of the NHLBI, and she is the Co-Chair of AMP Heart Failure. Dr. Sachdev also serves as the Senior Scientific Program Director for RECOVER, NIH’s Long COVID program. In these roles, she is responsible for oversight and scientific direction of the program as well as their fiscal support.

Dr. Sachdev received her M.D. from the University of Michigan. She completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of Michigan and George Washington University, and a Cardiology Fellowship at the University of Maryland. She has published over 115 manuscripts and book chapters.