“My mother, who is a nurse, had always envisioned me growing up to be a doctor,” said Ehimen Aneni, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine (cardiovascular medicine). “Even as a child, I always thought I’d find a cure for something important.”

Aneni started his journey to becoming a doctor in Nigeria, where he completed medical school at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. There, he first recognized the global, epidemiologic problem relating to non-communicable diseases – especially cardiovascular diseases – primarily driven by metabolic problems.

He came to the United States for a master's degree program in public health at Boston University, focusing on epidemiology and global health, and subsequently took a position as a post-doctoral research fellow in preventive cardiology. He transitioned back to residency at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Florida and then clinical cardiology fellowship at Yale. Through residency and clinical fellowship, he continued his focus on clinical care and cardiovascular research.

Aneni is now a general and preventive cardiologist with a special interest in cardiometabolic health, including people who have clinical sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, high BMI, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and other related health issues. He also spends half his time on research projects as a clinical scientist.

“One of the beautiful things about being a clinician scientist is that you take your science to the bedside and then take what you see is missing at the bedside back to the science,” he said. “If done right, patient care can help drive and inform your research. When you find something new with your research and share it with colleagues to improve patient care, it reinforces that your work is important and matters to people.”

Much of Aneni’s research centers on the connections between sleep apnea and heart health. He initially began research on this topic about a dozen years ago when he was in his last year of a postdoctoral fellowship. Not many people were looking into sleep issues and heart health at the time, and it is still rare to study sleep apnea from a cardiologist’s perspective, Aneni said.

“It became clear to me that there was a growing epidemic of obstructive sleep apnea, but while there was research showing an association with heart disease, stroke, and cardiovascular-related mortality, there was literally no explanation for why sleep apnea was causing heart disease. This piqued my interest,” said Aneni.

At the beginning of his clinical cardiology fellowship, Aneni reached out to Henry Yaggi, MD, MPH, professor of medicine (pulmonary, critical care & sleep medicine) at Yale, and they instantly hit it off.

“I was fortunate that we immediately had academic chemistry. Shortly after I started at Yale, we began to deeply explore some of the physiology and pathology related to sleep apnea and heart disease,” Aneni said. “Coming to Yale was an excellent decision. It completely exceeded my expectations for not just fellowship training but for a career in academic medicine.”

Aneni says that sleep apnea is still understudied, and despite some research, there is no clear understanding of what makes some people at higher risk of dying from sleep apnea. Heart disease is one of the top causes of death in people with sleep apnea.

“There’s still more to learn about how to properly risk stratify patients and get them to effective treatments,” said Aneni. “The CPAP mask is currently the gold standard for treatment, but more than 40% of people with sleep apnea cannot tolerate the mask.”

He recently presented some of his research at the American Heart Association conference, showing that sleep apnea increases the risk of heart disease and stroke among persons with cancer. He is also one of the investigators of a clinical trial led by Yaggi. The trial is looking at medication for sleep apnea and evaluating potential cardiovascular effects. In the long term, Aneni hopes to study sleep apnea and heart health in the context of longitudinal studies, including clinical trials.

Aneni says that for him, the key to happiness as a clinician scientist is to enjoy the journey rather than focusing solely on the goal.

“When you start, it can feel like looking at the top of the mountain from the bottom. You can’t only stare at the top. You need to make sure that every step along the way is helping you fulfill your passion,” he said.

Aneni also stressed the importance of picking the right mentor. “I tell students and trainees to spend a long time trying to figure out who will be a good mentor for you. Once you find the right mentor, so much starts to fall into place.”

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