Earlier this year, Dhruv S. Kazi, MD, MSc, MS, became Editor-in-Chief of Circulation: Population Health and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal dedicated to advancing the cardiovascular health of patients and communities.
The appointment comes at a pivotal moment for the journal. Launched as Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes in 2008, the journal was renamed in January 2026 to reflect an expanded mission spanning the full breadth of population science, including epidemiology, health economics, implementation science, and policy.
“It’s a privilege to lead an exceptionally talented editorial team as we begin this next chapter,” said Kazi. “We seek to build on the journal’s legacy of rigorous outcomes research while also creating a home for the full range of disciplines needed to improve health at scale.”
Kazi is joined by Deputy Editors Alexander Sandhu, MD, MS of UCLA and Emily O’Brien, PhD of Duke University, along with a multidisciplinary team of editors. The editorial team and board include 61 investigators representing more than 50 institutions across 19 U.S. states and five countries.
Kazi says the collaborative editorial process has been one of the most rewarding aspects of the role. “Our weekly editorial meeting may be the best journal club I’ve ever been part of,” he said. “I learn a tremendous amount from my colleagues, and the papers we hope to publish invariably emerge stronger from the discussion.”
A Wider Lens on Population Health
Kazi lays out his vision for the journal in an inaugural editorial, titled “Seeing the Whole Elephant: Integrating Outcomes Research and Population Health.”
The title draws on an Indian parable, retold by the Persian poet Rumi, in which people encountering an elephant in a dark room each describe it differently, depending on which part they happen to touch. For Kazi, the metaphor captures a central challenge of population health: no single discipline working alone can see the whole picture.
“Population health is our elephant in the dark,” Kazi writes. Improving health at scale requires clinicians, epidemiologists, outcomes researchers, implementation scientists, economists, policymakers, and communities to bring their different perspectives to the same problems.
That interdisciplinary approach closely mirrors the work of the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Institute for Evidence, Innovation, and Policy.
“The mission of Circulation: Population Health and Outcomes is deeply aligned with what we are trying to accomplish at the Smith Institute,” said Robert W. Yeh, MD, MSc, MBA, Executive Chair of the Smith Institute. “Generating rigorous evidence is only part of our responsibility. We also want that evidence to guide the national conversation about health, care delivery, and policy. Dr. Kazi’s leadership of the journal creates an extraordinary opportunity to extend the reach and impact of our work.”
Kazi credits the Smith community with informing his approach to the editorship. In his editorial, he notes that he is “grateful to…my colleagues and mentees at the Smith Center for Outcomes Research, whose intellectual partnership shapes everything I bring to this role.”
For Kazi, the journal’s ambitions extend beyond publishing excellent individual studies. At a time of rapid medical innovation, rising health care costs, widening inequities, and eroding trust in science, he sees journals as having a broader responsibility: to uphold methodological rigor, create space for thoughtful debate, and help translate evidence into better health.
Asked what kind of journal he hopes Circulation: Population Health and Outcomes will become, Kazi puts it simply:
“Rigorous. Fair. Ambitious. A journal that not only publishes outstanding science but helps define the future of cardiovascular and brain health.”
Read “Seeing the Whole Elephant: Integrating Outcomes Research and Population Health.”
About Circulation: Population Health and Outcomes
Circulation: Population Health and Outcomes is a monthly, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association. The journal publishes research spanning epidemiology and population health, health care delivery, prevention, implementation science, health disparities, informatics, health policy, economic evaluation, and cost-effectiveness, with a focus on improving cardiovascular health and outcomes in communities and health systems around the world.
Visit Circulation: Population Health and Outcomes.
About the Smith Institute of Innovation, Evaluation, and Policy
Founded in 2015 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Smith Institute’s mission is to improve people’s lives by bringing bold ideas, rigorous science, and clinical expertise to the most important questions in health care. The Smith Institute brings together multi-disciplinary expertise in clinical outcomes research, epidemiology, data science, health policy, and health economics to transform how evidence is generated and applied, while training the next generation of leaders and investigators. To get news as soon as it happens, follow us on X/Twitter and LinkedIn.
