Bernice Ruo, MD, MAS

Bernice RuoBernice Ruo, MD, MAS, is a graduate of Harvard/Radcliffe College (B.A. Chemistry) and Yale University School of Medicine. After completing residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, she obtained her masters in clinical research while completing a general internal medicine fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She is a general internist with advanced training in clinical epidemiology, biostatistics, and health services research.

Her current research focuses on the measurement of patient-reported outcomes (symptoms, functional status, and quality of life) and the incorporation of these measures into clinical care. She is interested in the measurement aspect of developing questionnaires and computer adaptive tests. Dr. Ruo has received funding from the American Heart Association as well as the National Institutes of Health. She is the recipient of a Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to develop a symptom assessment tool for patients with heart failure. In addition, she is interested in depression as a co-morbidity in cardiovascular disease. Her publications appear in several peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Journal of Cardiac Failure.

For the past several years, Dr. Ruo has served on grant review committees for the American Heart Association. In 2009, she was elected to Fellowship in the American College of Physicians. In addition, Dr. Ruo teaches Medical Decision Making, a third-year medical student course in which students find answers to their clinical questions by performing literature searches and critically analyzing the articles using clinical epidemiologic skills.

Highlighted articles

B Ruo, SW Choi, DW Baker, KL Grady, DC Cella. “Development and validation of a computer adaptive test for measuring dyspnea in heart failure.” Journal of Cardiac Failure (in press)

DA DeWalt, KA Broucksou, V Hawk, DW Baker, D Schillinger, B Ruo, K Bibbins-Domingo, M Holmes, M Weingerger, A Macabasco-O’Connell, and M Pignone. “Comparison of a one-time educational intervention to a teach-to-goal educational intervention for self-management of heart failure: design of a randomized controlled trial.” BMC Health Services Research 2009, 9:99.

B Ruo, DW Baker, JA Thompson, PK Murray, GM Huber, JJ Sudano. “Patients with worse mental health report more physical limitations after adjustment for physical performance.” Psychosomatic Medicine 2008;70:417-421.

B Ruo, K Liu, L Tian, J Tan, L Ferrucci, JM Guralnik, MM McDermott. “Persistent depressive symptoms and functional decline among patients with peripheral arterial disease: findings from the Walking and Leg Circulation Study.” Psychosomatic Medicine 2007; 69: 415-424.

R Passman, H Subacius, B Ruo, A Schaechter, A Howard, S Sears, A Kadish. “Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators and Quality of Life: Results from the Defibrillators in Non-Ischemic Cardiomyopathy Treatment Evaluation (DEFINITE) Study.” Archives of Internal Medicine 2007; 167 (20): 2226-2232.

B Ruo, D Bertenthal, S Sen, V Bittner, CC Ireland, MA Hlatky. “Self-rated health among women with heart disease: Depression is as important as recent cardiovascular events.” Am Heart J. 2006; 152(5): 921e1-7.

B Ruo, MT Tripputi, PY Hsue, M Saigo, P Ouyang, DD Waters. “Usefulness of serum endothelin levels predicting death and myocardial infarction but not coronary progression in postmenopausal women with coronary disease: a Women’s Angiographic Vitamin and Estrogen (WAVE) substudy.” Am J Cardiology. 2005; 96(3): 335-338.

B Ruo, AM Capra, NG Jensvold, AS Go. “Racial Variation in the Prevalence of Atrial Fibrillation Among Patients with Heart Failure: The Epidemiology, Practice, Outcomes, and Costs of Heart Failure (EPOCH) Study.” Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2004; 43(3): 429-435.

B Ruo,JS Rumsfeld, S Pipkin, MA Whooley. “Relation between depressive symptoms and treadmill exercise capacity in the Heart and Soul study.” Am J Cardiology. 2004;94(1):96-99.

B Ruo, JS Rumsfeld, MA Hlatky, H Liu, WS Browner, MA Whooley. “Depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life: The Heart and Soul study.” JAMA 2003; 290(2): 215-221.

CJ Howes, CB Brandt, MW Yerkey, B Ruo, MC Reid, MD Ezekowitz. “Exercise tolerance and quality of life in elderly patients with chronic atrial fibrillation.” Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics 2001; 6: 23-29.