NYU's Judith Hochman to Receive 2025 Research Achievement Award for Transformative Cardiology Studies

Dr. Judith S. Hochman, senior associate dean for clinical sciences and founding director of the Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, will receive the 2025 Research Achievement Award at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2025. The recognition highlights her decades of research that have directly influenced clinical practice guidelines worldwide and transformed patient care for ischemic heart disease.

Dr. Stacey E. Rosen, the American Heart Association's 2025-2026 volunteer president, emphasized the significance of Hochman's work, stating that her research has directly impacted patient care across the full spectrum of ischemic heart disease. Rosen described Hochman as a visionary leader unafraid to tackle complex questions, whose relentless commitment to improving patient outcomes has driven numerous cardiology advances available today.

Hochman's most influential research includes serving as principal investigator for three landmark trials that reshaped cardiovascular treatment approaches. The Occluded Artery Trial (OAT), building on her experimental work in rodent models, demonstrated no clinical benefit for late angioplasty in stable, post-myocardial infarction patients despite promising animal model findings. The SHOCK Trial established the clear survival advantage for early revascularization in patients with cardiogenic shock due to left ventricular failure after acute MI, showing that emergency revascularization reduced mortality rates by 13 absolute percentage points at one-year and long-term.

Her most recent clinical trial, the NHLBI-funded international ISCHEMIA trial, compared initial invasive versus conservative treatment strategies for stable coronary artery disease. While finding no significant difference in all-cause mortality, the trial identified substantial quality-of-life improvement among patients with angina who received invasive treatment including coronary angiography, percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass grafting.

These three pivotal trials led to new and revised recommendations regarding revascularization in joint clinical guidelines from the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology as well as guidelines from other international medical organizations. Hochman's scientific findings and her role on multiple guideline writing committees have been instrumental in shaping contemporary clinical practice.

Beyond revascularization research, Hochman is recognized as a trailblazer in women's cardiovascular health. In the Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction IIIb (TIMI IIIb) trial, she was among the first to study sex differences in women with acute coronary syndromes and to recognize the substantial incidence of women with these syndromes having no obstructive coronary disease. Her leadership roles for the National Institutes of Health's Women's Health Initiative Advisory Committee and multiple NIH Data and Safety Monitoring Boards reflect her enduring commitment to advancing women's health and ensuring rigor in clinical trials.

Hochman expressed gratitude for the recognition, stating she has been fortunate to collaborate with an extraordinary community of investigators to contribute to evidence-based care. Her passion has always been improving outcomes for patients through rigorous science, and she acknowledged the American Heart Association for her first grant and the NIH for critical support of randomized clinical trials.

The award ceremony will take place during the opening session of Scientific Sessions 2025 on November 9, 2025, in New Orleans. This premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements in cardiovascular science provides an appropriate platform to honor Hochman's transformative contributions to cardiology research and patient care.