Matthew Allison MD, MPH, FAHA

Matthew A. Allison, MD, MPH is Professor and Chief, Division of Preventive Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California San Diego. Dr. Allison earned his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the California Polytechnic State University and a Doctorate in Medicine from the Uniformed Services University. After medical school, and a categorical internship at the Naval Medical Center San Diego, he was trained and certified as a US Navy Diving and Undersea Medical Officer and then served in this capacity for 3 tours of duty. Towards the end of his military service, Dr. Allison obtained a Master’s degree in Public Health Epidemiology from San Diego State University (SDSU). Then, he completed residency training in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine (focused on preventive cardiology) and a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular epidemiology; both at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). He is board certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine by the American College of Preventive Medicine and is a Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA).

In 2005, Dr. Allison joined the faculty in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at UCSD and was promoted to Professor with Tenure in 2013. Currently, he conducts research that broadly investigates the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, with specific focal areas to include subclinical atherosclerosis, metabolism and body composition, kidney disease, women’s health and racial/ethnic disparities. In this regard, he is the Director of the UCSD Women’s Cardiovascular Health Research Center, the UCSD Carotid Ultrasound Reading Center, the UCSD-SDSU MD-MPH program and the Center of Excellence in Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Prevention, while also being the Director of the UCSD Integrated Fellowship on the Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases which is funded by an NIH T32 award. He has received postdoctoral fellowship and career transition awards from the American Heart Association, as well as three R01’s and one R21 from the NIH. Dr. Allison was also awarded an AHA Strategically Focused Research Center that focuses on sedentary behavior in women of Mexican descent. He has been the subcontract principal investigator for over 12 NIH funded studies. He is an active investigator to the Women’s Health Initiative, Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and the Hispanic Community Health Study – Study of Latinos. Dr. Allison currently serves as a Guest/Consulting Editor to the Circulation suite of journals and is on the editorial boards for Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, and Vascular Medicine. He has also served on several NIH study section committees and special emphasis panels. He has published nearly 400 manuscripts and book chapters.

Since 2011, Dr. Allison has been the Director of the Non-Invasive Vascular Laboratory and a staff physician in the Department of Surgery; both at the Veteran’s Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.