Diabetes, obesity, kidney disease, liver disease, and heart disease are responsible for more than a third of deaths in the United States and are becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide.
After seeing how this related group of health conditions, called cardiometabolic diseases, affected his family and community, Filipe Moura, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine (cardiovascular medicine), decided to focus his career on understanding these conditions. He enrolled in medical school at the Universidade de Brasilia, where he began investigating insulin resistance during heart attacks. His work coincided with a wave of emerging research on the connection between cardiovascular health and metabolism, including conflicting results from several large clinical trials on glucose levels in heart attacks.
“It was fertile ground for a young, aspiring physician-scientist like me,” Moura reflects. “Since then, the field has made incredible progress, driven by advances in our understanding of cardiometabolic disease and by the emergence of therapies such as GLP-1s that improve cardiovascular outcomes while targeting metabolic dysfunction. Yet many important questions remain regarding the mechanisms underlying these benefits, their broader population-level effects, and how best to individualize therapy. In many ways, we are still in the early stages of understanding the full biologic and clinical complexity of cardiometabolic disease and its potential implications for improving human health.”
After joining Yale in 2024, Moura began working closely with Silvio Inzucchi, MD, professor of medicine (endocrinology), to create an informal working group that brings together experts in cardiac imaging, cardiac prevention, diabetes, and obesity. “Yale has so many experts with deep knowledge in their own fields,” Moura says. “We’re trying to build the bridge to make it easier to communicate across specialties and find opportunities for collaboration to achieve better outcomes for our patients.”
Moura recently launched a new lab, which aims to break down silos and help researchers in different fields use imaging to assess cardiometabolic outcomes across organs. As part of this work, Moura is collaborating with colleagues in cardiac imaging to expand an existing registry of cardiac images collected from nearly every patient who receives a stress test through the Yale New Haven Health System. Moura and his colleagues are adding data from the electronic medical record, such as biomarkers, liver ultrasounds, and fiber scans, and creating a list of endpoints that extend beyond traditional cardiovascular outcomes to help support multidisciplinary research.
“There is a vast amount of data within cardiovascular imaging that gives us information into disease path, risk stratification, and disease subtypes, above and beyond what these tools have been approved for clinically,” Moura says. “Advanced imaging provides a unique window to what’s happening in different tissues and organs, which makes it a great fit for understanding how cardiometabolic diseases affect all aspects of the human body – not just the cardiovascular system.”
As the director of Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac Imaging at the West Haven VA, Moura is also working to build a similar registry at the VA that will mirror and connect to the Yale registry, making it easier for researchers from all specialties to use the data. “Because of the different risk factors related to veterans’ work and experiences in the military, the VA population has a higher prevalence of certain types of cardiovascular disease and kidney disease,” Moura says. “The VA offers an important place for us to research cardiometabolic health.” If the registry is successful in Connecticut, Moura hopes to collaborate with the VA to make the system available nationwide.
Moura is also committed to improving the prevention of cardiometabolic diseases and recently became an associate editor of the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a peer-reviewed journal focused on prevention research, teaching, practice, and policy. “Cardiometabolic syndrome is a complex disease that involves not just organ abnormalities and overall risk, but also behavioral abnormalities,” he says. “We need to find ways to address this earlier in life, with education about healthy nutrition and solutions to encourage exercise in kids, families, and in our communities.”
Outside of his work, Moura enjoys hiking with his wife and three daughters, as well as running and playing tennis. Recently, he’s spent much of his time working on house projects – a notable change, he says, from his years living in an apartment as a student and trainee.
Moura credits his growing achievements at Yale in part to his team of mentors, including Steven Pfau, MD; Eric Velazquez, MD; Ed Miller, MD, PhD; Al Sinusus, MD; and Silvio Inzucchi, MD, as well as peer-level mentors like Attila Feher, MD, PhD.
“My mentors and leaders have given me the guidance and time to think about these questions.”
Filipe Moura, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine)
“As someone early in my career, I know it is so important to have advocates and people who speak on your behalf in your absence. It takes a village, and I’m fortunate to have that support here at Yale,” he says.
Cardiovascular Medicine, one of 10 sections in the Yale Department of Internal Medicine, is dedicated to improving cardiovascular health by advancing groundbreaking research, training the next generation of experts in cardiology, and delivering world-class patient care to people with a range of cardiovascular issues. To learn more, visit Cardiovascular Medicine.
(Newswise/HG)
