Natalie Jackson, MPH, is the research manager for VUMC's Heart Valve Program under the direction of Drs. Brian Lindman and Colin Barker. She oversees a team conducting clinical trials on investigational devices to treat heart valve disease utilizing minimally invasive transcatheter approaches (i.e. transcatheter aortic valve replacements [TAVR], mitral/tricuspid valve replacement and repairs [MVR/r or TVR/r], etc.). She also assists in the management of multiple heart valve databases and biospecimen repositories for various ongoing research projects.
Natalie manages research operations for transcatheter heart valve therapies with an interdisciplinary team at VUMC; including interventional cardiologists, echocardiologists, surgeons, heart failure specialists, cardiac radiologists, cardiac nurses, and research coordinators. Her role oversees investigational device trials sponsored by industry companies such as Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic, Abbott, Boston Scientific, Innovalve, etc. to test the safety and efficacy of novel heart valve therapy options.
In addition to the investigational device trials, she oversees multiple ongoing, longitudinal heart valve registries that collects clinical/procedural data, biospecimens, frailty and cognitive metrics, etc. at timepoints surrounding transcatheter valve procedures to identify patterns in disease progression (pre- and post- valve) and optimal therapeutic strategies. From these registries, along with collaboration from outside investigators and biobanks, Dr. Lindman and her team seek to understand genetic and nongenetic profiles that may develop and progress valve disease differently in some patients.