About

Seema K. Shah is an Associate Professor of Law (Courtesy) at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Her academic focus includes health law, as indicated by her course offerings in this area. She is part of the faculty involved in the Law, Business, and Economics Center and contributes to the academic community through her research and teaching. Her role involves engaging with students and the broader legal community at Northwestern Law, supporting the school's mission to provide comprehensive legal education and research.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Cardiology
• Computer Science
• Demography
• Endocrinology
• Pathology
• Machine Learning
• Artificial Intelligence
• Intensive care medicine
• Physical therapy
• Radiology
• Statistics
• Biology
• Genetics
• Evolutionary biology
• Data science
• Environmental health
• Gerontology

Selected publications

• Sex Differences In Cardiac Transthyretin Amyloidosis

  Journal of Cardiac Failure · 2026-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Atrial Fibrillation A Marker Of Disease In Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloidosis

  Journal of Cardiac Failure · 2026-01-01

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  PublisherDOI

• Correction to: Myeloid Fatty Acid Metabolism Activates Neighboring Hematopoietic Stem Cells to Promote Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

  Circulation · 2026-01-12

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  PublisherDOI

• Estimating the Placebo Effect on Patient-Reported Outcomes in Sham-Controlled Device Trials: Insights From REDUCE LAP-HF II

  Circulation Population Health and Outcomes · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen access

  Background: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are increasingly used as endpoints in clinical trials. However, the magnitude of observed changes in control arms attributable to placebo effects, as compared with other benefits of trial participation, has not been described.This study seeks to estimate the magnitude of the placebo effect by calculating changes in Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire Overall Summary (KCCQ-OS) scores, which quantify the impact of heart failure on patients' symptoms, function, and quality of life, after participants were unblinded to treatment. Methods: REDUCE LAP-HF II randomized participants to atrial shunt or sham procedure, with unblinding after 2 years. The KCCQ was collected at baseline, 2, and 3 years after randomization. KCCQ-OS change from baseline to 2 years (placebo effect plus other benefits from trial participation) and the change from 2 to 3 years (placebo effect loss after unblinding) were calculated in sham-treated patients using mean±SD, as were changes from 2 to 3 years in shunt-treated patients (placebo effect benefit). Results: The analytic cohort included 421 participants (median age 72 years, 65.6% female). Among sham-treated participants (N=182), the mean±SD KCCQ-OS 2-year improvement from baseline was +9.3±22.4 points, with a decrement after unblinding of -1.7±18.2 points from 2 to 3 years. Among shunt-treated patients (N=239), mean±SD KCCQ-OS 2-year improvement was +12.7±22.8 points, with an improvement after unblinding of +1.9±18.2 points. In a hypothetical unblinded trial where placebo effect benefit would be expected in the active intervention arm, and none in the untreated arm, the combined effects would be 3.6 points. Conclusions: In a sham-controlled device trial that collected PRO data during blinded allocation to treatment or sham and after unblinding, the estimated mean placebo effect benefit and loss on the KCCQ-OS were small (≤2 points). Finding a modest placebo effect on PROs may increase confidence in their use as clinical trial outcomes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Viral respiratory tract infections in heart failure: the FINEARTS-HF trial

  European Heart Journal · 2026-05-05

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  International audience

  PublisherDOI

• Finerenone-Related Risk of Hypotension in Heart Failure With Mildly Reduced or Preserved Ejection Fraction

  JACC Heart Failure · 2025-12-09

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  PublisherDOI

• SPIROMICS HF: Rationale, Design, and Reproducibility of Measures

  Circulation Heart Failure · 2025-11-05

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  BACKGROUND: Although chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction often coexist with overlapping clinical features, they are usually studied separately. The SPIROMICS HF (Subpopulations and Intermediate Outcome Measures in COPD and Heart Failure Study) is testing hypotheses that new computed tomography emphysema subtypes are associated with specific cardiovascular phenotypes (eg, cor pulmonale , cor pulmonale parvus ), common airway branch variants are associated with right heart dysfunction, and symptomatic tobacco-exposed persons with preserved spirometry have signs of increased left ventricular afterload. METHODS: SPIROMICS is a multicenter observational study of COPD with extensive pulmonary phenotyping of participants with ≥20 pack-years smoking and nonsmoking controls. COPD and COPD severity were defined by standard spirometric criteria and symptomatic tobacco-exposed persons with preserved spirometry by ≥20 pack-years, normal spirometry, and COPD Assessment Test score >10. SPIROMICS HF selected all participants in SPIROMICS visit 5 at major sites. Its comprehensive speckle-tracking echocardiography, which included physiological perturbations of leg raise and low-intensity exercise, was harmonized prospectively with the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis Early Heart Failure and HeartSHARE (Combining Omics, Deep Phenotyping, and Electronic Health Records for Heart Failure Subtypes and Treatment Targets) studies. The cardiopulmonary magnetic resonance imaging protocol with gadolinium administration included myocardial fibrosis sequences, pulmonary angiography, time-resolved 3-dimensional cine magnetic resonance imaging (4-dimensional flow) of venous return, and metronome-paced tachypnea to induce dynamic hyperinflation. Coronary artery calcium was assessed on computed tomography scans. The Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire was administered. RESULTS: Of the final sample of 753 participants, 57% had COPD (15% mild, 27% moderate, and 15% severe), 18% had symptomatic tobacco-exposed persons with preserved spirometry, 16% were smoking controls, and 8% were nonsmoking controls. Reproducibility of the main measures from speckle-tracking echocardiography (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.83–0.99), exercise echocardiography (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.71–0.99) and magnetic resonance imaging (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.57–0.99) were good-to-excellent, including in severe COPD. CONCLUSIONS: SPIROMICS HF aims to characterize and understand cardiopulmonary interactions in COPD and COPD-related phenotypes to inform targeted treatments for combined cardiopulmonary failure.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Abstract 4366287: Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events across the Spectrum of Cardio-Kidney-Metabolic Syndrome: A FINE-HEART Pooled Analysis

  Circulation · 2025-11-03

  article

  Background: Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) mechanistically reduce inflammation, oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction. There is growing interest in understanding the composite cardiovascular (CV) protection afforded by therapies like the nonsteroidal MRA finerenone with systemic actions in patients with cardio-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome. Methods: In this participant-level pre-specified pooled analysis from three large phase 3 clinical trials (FIDELIO-DKD, FIGARO-DKD, and FINEARTS-HF), we assessed the association between various nonfatal CV events (myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure hospitalization) and rates of subsequent mortality using time-updated models. We then examined the treatment effects of finerenone vs. placebo on major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE, a composite of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or heart failure hospitalization), which was a prespecified secondary endpoint in the FINE-HEART pooled analysis, using Cox regression models stratified by trial and region. Results: During a median of 2.9 years of follow-up, among the 18,991 participants, 1,544 (8.1%) experienced heart failure hospitalization, 500 (2.6%) nonfatal myocardial infarction, 570 (3.0%) nonfatal stroke, and 892 (4.7%) CV death. Patients with incident myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure hospitalization consistently experienced markedly higher subsequent risks of mortality ( Figure 1 ). Mortality was highest after heart failure hospitalization (incidence rate 23.4 [21.4-25.8] per 100py compared with 3.2 [3.1-3.4] per 100py for individuals without nonfatal CV events). Finerenone reduced the composite of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or heart failure hospitalization (HR 0.91; 95% CI, 0.85–0.98; P = 0.010, Figure 2). Results were essentially unchanged in a sensitivity analysis including undetermined deaths as CV deaths (HR 0.90; 95% CI, 0.84–0.96; P = 0.002). The treatment effect on MACE was consistent across FINEARTS-HF (HR 0.95; 95% CI 0.86–1.05), FIDELIO-DKD (HR 0.88; 95% CI 0.76–1.02), and FIGARO-DKD (HR 0.87; 95% CI 0.76–1.00); P int =0.55. Risk reductions did not differ by the number of CKM conditions ( P int =0.98). Conclusion: Among patients with cardio-kidney-metabolic syndrome, major adverse cardiovascular events were frequent, prognostically meaningful, and reduced with the non-steroidal MRA finerenone.

  PublisherDOI

• Interplay Between Heart Failure Events, New-Onset Diabetes, and Finerenone in Heart Failure With Mildly Reduced or Preserved Ejection Fraction

  Diabetes Care · 2025-12-08

  articleOpen access

  International audience

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Rationale and Design of the HeartShare/AMP-HF Deep Phenotyping Study to Improve Understanding of Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

  JACC Heart Failure · 2025-12-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Machine learning for the automated identification and tracking of rare myocardial diseases

  NIH · $2.8M · 2018–2024

• NIH Grant R01HL127028

  NIH · $6.5M · 2021

• Data Portal Core

  NIH · $33.7M · 2021–2026

• NIH Grant R01HL107577

  NIH · $4.1M · 2022

• Precision Medicine for Dilated Cardiomyopathy—Novel Assessment of Cardiac Mechanics via Speckle Tracking Echocardiography to Identify Early Phenotypes

  NIH · $1.6M · 2019–2025

Frequent coauthors

• Scott D. Solomon

  Harvard University

  567 shared

• Brian Claggett

  Brigham and Women's Hospital

  421 shared

• Bertram Pitt

  Northwestern University

  401 shared

• Carolyn S.P. Lam

  Duke-NUS Medical School

  373 shared

• Inder S. Anand

  University of Minnesota

  370 shared

• Nancy K. Sweitzer

  348 shared

• Marc A. Pfeffer

  Harvard University

  324 shared

• Amil M. Shah

  319 shared

Labs

• Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Faculty & ResearchPI

Awards & honors

• Teaching Awards