ROSE MARIE ROBERTSON, M.D.

While Rose Marie Robertson, M.D., was serving as president of the American Heart Association, she made a simple observation – there was a stark contrast between what the organization was attempting to accomplish and what physicians were able to do for their patients.

“We had a tremendous amount of science telling us what to do to help people with heart disease and stroke, but there were enormous barriers to patients getting the actual care they needed,” recalls Robertson, professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt.

“There were enormous disparities in health care and the opportunities for people to have good health care. When I saw the opportunity to do something for people in the broader sense of health care, it felt worthwhile,” she said. “Many decisions about the health care system get made without physician input and there are many places where physicians, whose focus is the good of the public, can have a real impact. We have a knowledge base that allows us to think about problems in a way that only people who take care of patients think.”

As Robertson’s role as president of the AHA was winding down in 2002, another post became open on the national level that would require a leave of absence from Vanderbilt. In 2003 she was named chief science officer at the AHA. It was an opportunity that would allow Robertson to continue to make a difference in public health policy – something that meshes her interest in both clinical care and patient-oriented research. continued..