Malissa Wood, M.D.
Co-Director, Corrigan Women’s Heart Health Program
Principal Investigator, Happy Heart Trial
Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Wood completed her undergraduate and medical degrees in the combined B.A/M.D (Biology) program from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1987. She completed her internship and residency in medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts in 1990. She served as Chief Medical Resident from 1990-1991. Her cardiology training was performed at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center from1991-1994. She completed an interventional cardiology fellowship at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio from 1994-1995. Dr. Wood joined the staff of Massachusetts General Hospital in 2000.
Dr. Wood’s current clinical activities include co-directing the Women’s Heart Health Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, serving as Director of the Corrigan Fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease in Women, and working as an echocardiographer in the Cardiac Ultrasound Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital.
In order to improve the clinical care of women and the understanding of cardiovascular disease in women Dr. Wood designed and implemented the Corrigan Women’s Heart Health Program in 2007. This clinical model includes the development of individualized care plans for women at risk for or who are suffering from cardiovascular disease and development of research and educational components to better understand these conditions and share this information with practicing physicians. The educational goals of the program have been addressed in part through creation of a biennial continuing medical education program and through the development of a two year fellowship in Women’s Cardiovascular Disease. Dr. Wood’s current research interests include studying the underlying mechanisms responsible for spontaneous coronary artery dissection, an increasingly common form of coronary artery disease primarily affecting young women. She is also studying the impact of stress, depression and anxiety on cardiovascular risk factors and myocardial infarction in young women and the implementation of mindfulness based interventions on markers of stress and possible impact on secondary cardiovascular events in young men and women with prior myocardial infarction. The research goals have been addressed through multiple clinical studies including the the NHLBI funded Safety and Efficacy of Tai Chi as an Adjunctive Therapy in Patients with Congestive Heart Failure (NEXT HEART) study, the HAPPY Heart program and the MGH Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection Registry “Healing the Heart from Within”study.
Dr. Wood has made significant educational contributions devoted to raising awareness of gender differences in cardiovascular disease risk, symptoms and preventive strategies locally, regionally and nationally. Dr. Wood is a member of the AHA multidisciplinary SCAD writing group. She is on the leadership council of the American College of Cardiology Women in Cardiology Committee and is the Governor-elect for the Massachusetts Chapter of the American College of Cardiology
Publications
Crousillat DR, Wood MJ. Valvular Heart Disease and Heart Failure in Women. Heart Fail Clin. 2019 Jan; 15(1):77-85. PMID: 30449382.
DeFilippis EM, Lau ES, Wei J, Hayes SN, Wood MJ. Where are the women in academic cardiology? Lancet. 2018 Nov 17; 392(10160):2152-2153. PMID: 30496087.
Lundberg GP, Mehta LS, Sanghani RM, Patel HN, Aggarwal NR, Aggarwal NT, Braun LT, Lewis SJ, Mieres JH, Wood MJ, Harrington RA, Volgman AS. Heart Centers for Women. Circulation. 2018 Sep 11; 138(11):1155-1165. PMID: 30354384.
Kaadan MI, MacDonald C, Ponzini F, Duran J, Newell K, Pitler L, Lin A, Weinberg I, Wood MJ, Lindsay ME. Prospective Cardiovascular Genetics Evaluation in Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection. Circ Genom Precis Med. 2018 Apr; 11(4):e001933. PMID: 29650765.