Sheila Klassen, MD, an adult cardiologist with subspecialties in echocardiography and structural heart disease, serves as the Assistant Director for Cardiac Integration at the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In that role, as part of PEN-Plus, she leads programs for decentralizing and integrating care for people with advanced cardiovascular disease at the rural district hospital level across the Network’s Phase 3 and Phase 4 implementation countries.

Dr. Klassen has had extensive experience carrying out heart failure and echocardiography training related to PEN-Plus implementation in sub-Saharan Africa and has chaired or directed sessions at international conferences related to heart failure care in limited-resource settings. She also manages cardiology fellowships supported by the Center for Integration Science.

In addition, Dr. Klassen serves as a Lecturer in the Program in Global Noncommunicable Disease and Social Change in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Klassen earned her MD at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, in 2011. She completed a residency in internal medicine at McMaster University, followed by an Adult Cardiology fellowship at the University of Calgary in Alberta. Dr. Klassen completed a fellowship in Advanced Echocardiography and Clinical Research with Massachusetts General Hospital in 2019 and a fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease and Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2020. She is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, a Fellow of the American Society of Echocardiography, and an Emerging Leader within the World Heart Federation.