Meet the "Refrigerator Makeover Doctor"

Debra R. Judelson, M.D.

Past President, American Medical Women's Association

Debra R. Judelson, M.D., earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School as part of the Joint Program in Health Sciences and Technology between Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She holds an S.B. in metallurgy and materials science engineering from MIT. She completed her residency in internal medicine and fellowship in cardiology, and is board certified in both.

Judelson, an internist/cardiologist, is a senior partner with the Cardiovascular Medical Group of Southern California and medical director of their Women’s Heart Institute in Beverly Hills. She is also an attending physician at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Century City Hospital and the Brotman Medical Center and is also a preceptor for medical students at University of Southern California (USC) and UCLA medical schools.

She is active in a number of medical organizations, often holding executive positions. As a
Past President, she has been a particularly influential member of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA), and currently co-chairs the organization’s Subcommittee on Cardiovascular Disease and directs AMWA’s Educational Project on Coronary Heart Disease in Women, a continuing medical education program she created which is responsible for training over 16,000 primary care physicians on gender differences in recognition, diagnosis, risk factor prevention and treatment of heart disease in women. She has also served as a Chair of the Women Physicans Congress of the American Medical Association (AMA), where she is also a delegate for AMWA to the AMA.

Over the past few years, Dr. Judelson has used her ability to communicate with consumers about heart disease through the media. Not only has she appeared on national talk shows (e.g. Oprah, Weekend Today) and local network affiliate television and radio shows and in print media (e.g.various dailies, Vogue Magazine, Fortune Magazine), she also ran a New York Times on-line chatroom on women’s health issues.

Published in medical journals from the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association to Circulation and Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Judelson has also authored several books and is lead author of the Women’s Complete Wellness Book and authored the chapter on heart disease in AMWA’s The Women's Complete Healthbook.

She was awarded the Excellence in Women’s Cardiovascular Education Award in 2002 by the Western Affiliate of the American Heart Association and was Volunteer of the Year from the Los Angeles County Office of Women’s Health in 2002. Dr. Judelson received the first Wenger Award for excellence in healthcare education by WomenHeart: the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease.

Dr. Judelson’s influence spans the United States from coast to coast. She is the appointed chair of the Women’s Health Policy Council (WHPC) of the Los Angeles County Office of Women’s Health and an appointed member of the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA) Women’s Health Measurement Advisory Panel (MAP), based in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Judelson serves as a delegate to the American Medical Association and the California Medical Association and on the Board of Directors for the American College of Cardiology’s California Chapter. Active in education, Dr. Judelson is a Physician Preceptor for Medical Students at U.C.L.A. and U.S.C, and is an Educational Counselor for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She serves on the Board of Directors of The Beverly Hills CPR, and is a past member of the Board of Governors of the Maple Counseling Center and the West Los Angeles chapter of the American Heart Association.

Dr. Judelson - also a wife and mother of two daughters at MIT - resides in Beverly Hills, California.

Organizations listed are for identification purposes only and are not meant to imply endorsements.