Robin Ortiz, MD

My research is inspired by my practice of medicine holding triple board certification in internal medicine, pediatrics, and lifestyle medicine. I am the Principal Investigator and founder of the Caregiver Heart Health research clinic and program, which aims to re-imagine healthcare through an intergenerational and relational health framework. Our studies aim to establish an empirical basis for the therapeutic potential of the caregiver-child dyad that can be harnessed to sustainably drive change in cardiovascular health at the level adults while laying the foundation for the cardiovascular health trajectory of children.

This research program and my scope of work have three overarching aims that extend well beyond the caregiver-child context to:

1. Understand the neuro-endocrine-immune mechanisms underpinning the association between stress physiology and cardiometabolic disease risk,
2. Identify and promote approaches to the attainment of optimized intergenerational cardiovascular health for chronic disease prevention, and,
3. Contextualize lived individual, dyadic, and family-level experiences of relational health within structural, community and environmental context toward population-level policy and practice change.

In addition to publishing our team’s work in Health Affairs, Clinical Epigenetics, and the JAMA journal network, I have been honored to be named a 40 Under 40 Leader in Health (by NMQF), a Future Leader Advancing Research in Endocrinology by the Endocrine Society, and both a New Century and, most recently, RAPID (Research in Academic Pediatrics Investigator Development) Scholar by the Academic Pediatric Association. My work to date has received grant funding from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia PolicyLab, the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, the National Science Foundation, the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society, the Johns Hopkins Primary Care Consortium and Physician Scientist Training Program, and most recently, the American Heart Association and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Awardee).

Importantly, my research is constantly inspired by patient care. I maintain clinical practice, currently at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, with children and adults in the context of families, utilizing additional training in lifestyle medicine, mindfulness, and plant-based nutrition.