Dra. Leticia Fernández-Friera

Founding partner of ATRIA Clinic and director of the Cardiology Service of HM Hospitals (CIEC). She is also director of the Cardiac Imaging Unit and the Women’s Cardiology Unit at HM Group and the MAAM Program at AtriaClinic, scientific director of the Cardiology Service and promoter of the “Corazón de Mujer” movement.

National academic training
She graduated in Medicine from the University of Oviedo (Asturias, 1997) and in Cardiology at the Marqués de Valdecilla Hospital (Santander, 2003). She obtained the Degree of Doctor with the qualification of Cum Laude from the University of Cantabria “TAC in the Evaluation of Acute Chest Pain: Diagnostic Value of the Coronary Calcium Score” (2011).

International academic training
He has specialized in echocardiography at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston (2007-2008), and in cardiac computed tomography (CT) and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (Cardio-MRI) at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York (2009-2010) under the supervision of Dr. Valentín Fuster.

International recognition
He received the highest accreditation (Level III) from the European Society of Cardiology in Cardio-MRI (2018) and cardiac CT (2020), which brings credibility and professional legitimacy to his expertise with an internationally established standard and guarantees patients the highest quality in diagnostic imaging. She received several national and international research awards, participates in collaborative projects with prestigious international centers and is a scientific reviewer for several journals and Research Institutions.

R&D
Her dedication and interest in research has been reflected in 103 publications in high impact journals (4 Nature, 24 JACC, 7 Circulation, 2 EHJ, New England Journal of Medicine, etc; 80% in Q1, 50% in D1, H-INDEX of 29) and 10 competitive research grants. His main lines of research include the study of atherosclerosis, with special interest in prevention, cardiovascular disease in women and non-invasive imaging techniques.

Teaching and Publications
She is a professor at the University of Medicine CEU-San Pablo (2015-present) and director of multiple courses in cardiac CT and MRI (2017-present). Her expertise in cardiac imaging is reflected in more than 16 book chapters, being editor of the popularization book “La Salud de tu corazón” and the Manual de Imagen Cardiovascular. She has been involved in the training and specialization in cardiovascular imaging of more than 60 national and international physicians during her professional career.

Promoting women’s health
She is director of the Women’s Cardiovascular Unit at HM Hospitales and leads multiple initiatives to promote women’s health. She is an ambassador for the “Women for the Heart” campaign where more than 500,000 check-ups were successfully carried out over 10 years and is an active member of the Spanish Committee for Cardiovascular Diseases in Women. She has been invited to numerous conferences on Women’s Health, participating in radio programs, television and events and has written several articles to disseminate the importance of cardiovascular disease in women. She has also promoted a PROCNIC-Mapfre-Spanish Heart Foundation and HM Hospitales agreement to promote women’s health (2018) and has received funding from the Carlos III Institute as Principal Investigator to study cardiovascular disease in women (WAKE UP; 2020).

Search for her publications at pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov