Ana Spasojevic

Ottawa, ON

Undergraduate Research Student
University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Harvard Medical School
Ottawa, ON

CWHHA member since November, 2022

Biography

Ana is a third-year student in the Translational and Molecular Medicine Program at the University of Ottawa, who is passionate about transforming the landscape of women’s heart health diagnosis, treatment, and research in Canada and beyond. She joined the Women’s Heart Health Alliance to help break down the barriers that currently prevent women from receiving proper diagnosis and treatment. 

As a volunteer at her hospital’s Women’s Heart Health Clinic, she authored an educational booklet about heart disease prevention for women, preformed a literature review assessing educational resources for women’s heart health, and presented her work to a team of doctors and nurses. In this role she learnt to critically analyze disparities in healthcare and taken initiative to eliminate these divides. She gained a deeper understanding of the factors that shape a patients experience with their diagnosis. 

As a recipient of the University of Ottawa Undergraduate Research Scholarship, last summer, she worked at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, investigating how stem cells can be differentiated into functional heart tissue. This grew her passion for cardiology when she first observed heart muscle cells beating under a microscope. 

Within her career, she aspires to eliminate the disconnect between researchers and patients, by improving scientific literacy in society and by continuously disseminating research findings to the public. In achieving this goal, she hopes to undertake an interdisciplinary career path with an equal focus on medical research, clinical treatment, and science communication. Overall, in her career she aspires to investigate therapeutic solution for heart disease and to translate these therapies to clinical practice.