Scientist Named 2013 Researcher of the Year by Intermountain Healthcare

Benjamin Horne, PhD, MPH, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Murray, is the recipient of the annual award. He also receives a $5,000 check to support his ongoing research. 

“Intermountain Healthcare gains our local reputation by the outstanding care we deliver, but we earn our national reputation through research,” says William Hamilton, MD, medical director of Intermountain’s Urban Central Region. “Considering we’re non-university hospitals, we do an amazing amount of research, and Dr. Horne is a powerful force behind much of our cardiology research. He’s completed over 150 peer-reviewed articles, as well as a large number of abstracts and book chapters. He has an outstanding professional and personal reputation and is well-deserving of our Researcher of the Year award.” 

Dr. Horne leads a group of five other epidemiologists, statisticians, and a bioinformaticist at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute. He also serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Genetic Epidemiology Division of the Department of Medicine at the University of Utah. 

Dr. Horne’s research interests include both traditional and genetic epidemiology. He is evaluating several hypotheses regarding how and why routine periodic fasting may reduce the risk of metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, and the development of coronary heart disease. 

Dr. Horne’s genetic research includes finding the genes that predispose people to have a heart attack and finding the genes involved in peripartum cardiomyopathy, a serious heart muscle condition that occurs during pregnancy or soon afterward to about 1 in 3,000 women. 

He also is an expert in creating risk scores and currently is developing risk scores to determine which patients are most likely to return to the hospital after an initial hospital stay. 

Dr. Horne completed a PhD in genetic epidemiology at the University of Utah and has a master’s degree in biostatistics and a master’s in public health. He’s worked with the cardiology research group at Intermountain since 1996. He’s a member of the board of directors of the Utah affiliate of the American Heart Association, and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and a fellow of the American Heart Association.