UA’s Dr. Khadijah Breathett Selected as One of ‘40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health’

TUCSON, Ariz. – Khadijah Breathett, MD, MS, was selected by the National Minority Quality Forum as one of “40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health.” The NMQF chose the 2019 group from hundreds of applications of health-care professionals from throughout the United States, noting these 40 represent the next generation of thought leaders in reducing health disparities.

Dr. Breathett, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, Division of Cardiology, is a member of the UA Sarver Heart Center and a heart-failure specialist with the Advanced Heart Failure, Mechanical Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation Team at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson. Her research interests include reducing racial/ethnic and gender disparities in advanced heart failure and prevention of heart failure in those populations. Her research is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

“Dr. Breathett is a young physician-scientist with incredible passion and drive who is making a difference already after only two years as a faculty member at the Sarver Heart Center. Her work has the potential to be generalized and change delivery of care to under-represented populations, not only in advanced heart failure, but in many conditions,” said Nancy K. Sweitzer, MD, PhD, director of the UA Sarver Heart Center and chief of cardiology at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson.

“It is an honor to be recognized for healthy equity, something that I care so much about. I hope that my research will promote health equity for many generations to come,” Dr. Breathett said.

Dr. Breathett’s NHLBI project is, “Addressing Individual Provider Bias and Group Decision-Making in Selection of Advanced Heart Failure Therapies in Racial/Ethnic Minorities” (NHLBI/NIH Award No. K01HL142848).


About the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center

The University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center’s 150 members include faculty members from cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, pediatric cardiology, neurology, vascular surgery, radiology, endocrinology, emergency medicine, nursing, pharmacy and basic sciences. The UA Sarver Heart Center emphasizes a highly collaborative research environment, fostering innovative translational or “bench-to-bedside” research; dedicated to innovating lifesaving patient care. If you would like to give permission for the UA Sarver Heart Center to contact you about heart research studies, please complete a Cardiology Research Registry Information Form. The academic mission of the UA Sarver Heart Center encompasses four fellowship programs in cardiovascular disease, interventional cardiology, advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology and electrophysiology.

About the University of Arizona Health Sciences

The University of Arizona Health Sciences is the statewide leader in biomedical research and health professions training. The UA Health Sciences includes the UA Colleges of Medicine (Phoenix and Tucson), Nursing, Pharmacy and Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, with main campus locations in Tucson and the growing Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix. From these vantage points, the UA Health Sciences reaches across the state of Arizona and the greater Southwest to provide cutting-edge health education, research, patient care and community outreach services. A major economic engine, the UA Health Sciences employs approximately 4,000 people, has approximately 800 faculty members and garners more than $140 million in research grants and contracts annually. For more information: uahs.arizona.edu (Follow us: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Instagram)