The overall goals of investigators in NYU Langone’s Natarajan Lab are to improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment and to optimize care for complex chronic conditions like diabetes and heart failure. Our clinical trials incorporate care for complex chronic conditions to prevent cardiovascular disease and other complications.

Behavioral Clinical Trials

We are conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate behavioral interventions to optimize care for chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, and stroke. We evaluated the association of transtheoretical stages of change constructs with glycemic control and blood pressure control in low-income patients with CVD risk factors, and are using the transtheoretical framework in other studies targeting hypertension, diabetes, and heart failure.

We conducted a RCT to test the effect of a stage-matched behavioral intervention on treatment adherence and hypertension control in collaboration with experts in behavioral theory. Another project employed checklists, defaults, and behavioral theory to intervene at the provider and patient level in patients admitted with heart failure to improve quality of life and reduce readmissions.

Currently we are conducting primary and secondary prevention intervention trials to reduce foot complications in veterans with diabetes.

Population Science

We analyzed large population-based databases to improve CVD risk assessment and management. By analysis of large databases, we examined trends in screening, prevalence, and treatment of CVD risk factors using the behavioral risk factor surveillance system (BRFSS), compared variations in health care utilization among adults with risk factors for CVD using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), determined the validity of self-report of hypercholesterolemia using the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES III), and evaluated gender differences in CVD mortality in individuals with diabetes using the Framingham Heart Study data and the Nhanes Epidemiologic Follow-up Study (NHEFS).

Contact Us

Sundar Natarajan, MD
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
423 East 23rd Street
Room 13028
New York, NY 10010
Phone: 212-951-3395
Email: sundar.natarajan@nyulangone.org