Dr. Garima Sharma is Director of Cardio-Obstetrics and Director of Cardiovascular Women’s Health at Inova Health System, an Inova Schar Heart and Vascular and Inova Women’s collaborative program. She is board certified in cardiovascular disease and sees women with cardiac disease during pregnancy; treats hypertension, spontaneous coronary artery disease (SCAD) and lipid abnormalities; and works with patients with risk factors for severe cardiovascular disease who are in menopausal transition.

Her clinical and research areas of interest include pregnancy, preeclampsia, maternal obesity, health disparities, postpartum prevention of complications from hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, spontaneous coronary artery dissection, cardiovascular health in women, and gender inequities in science and medicine.

Dr. Sharma is a national leader in women’s health and preventive cardiology. She completed her training at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia and subsequently was on the faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Dr. Sharma was the founder of the cardio-obstetrics program at Johns Hopkins. She joins Inova with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the management of cardiovascular disease in women across their lifespan. She has published more than 100 per-reviewed articles in top-tier academic journals and has led several national and international educational conferences in women’s cardiovascular health.

In 2021, Dr. Sharma became the governor of the Maryland Chapter of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). She has been a writing group member of several ACC/American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines on cardiovascular disease in women; was the chair of the AHA Scientific Statement on Status of Maternal Cardiovascular Health in American Indian and Alaskan Native Individuals; and was vice-chair of an AHA Policy Statement (Call to Action: Maternal Health and Saving Mothers). In this AHA Policy Statement, Dr. Sharma and her coauthors provided comprehensive recommendations to improve maternal health. The authors advocated for policies to remove barriers to healthcare access and quality, systematically address social and structural determinants of health, incentivize care coordination among providers across the maternal care continuum, and cultivate and expand partnerships that empower community members to promote cardiovascular health in their communities.

Dr. Sharma is coauthor on the AHA Scientific Statement on Cardiovascular Consideration in Caring for Pregnant Patients, released in 2020. She was also the coauthor on the 2021 ACC/AHA/Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions Guideline for Coronary Artery Disease Revascularization, where she wrote the sections on secondary prevention and SCAD. She was a coauthor on the landmark 2022 AHA Presidential Advisory that updated the cardiovascular health metrics from Life’s Simple 7 to Life’s Essential 8. This statement from the AHA redefined cardiovascular health and its 2024 impact goal.

She is the recipient of AHA Health and Social Needs Grant to understand the social determinants of risk of hypertension in reproductive-age women in Baltimore. Her research has been awarded funding from the National Institutes of Health and the AHA, and she has published extensively in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Circulation and the Journal of the American Medical Association on women’s health.

PubMed Publications

Webinars

Women and cardiovascular disease: how women's hearts are different

Blog Posts

Heart Health: Risk factors women should not ignore, Northern Virginia Magazine (February 2024)

Inova Women’s Cardiovascular Health offers specialized care (October 2023)

Awards/Associations

• ACC Women in Cardiology Leadership Council
• AHA Council of Clinical Cardiology’s Women and Underrepresented Populations