Odayme Quesada is a cardiologist who specializes in heart diseases in women. Quesada holds the Ginger Warner Endowed Chair in Women's Cardiovascular Health and is the medical director of The Women's Heart Center at The Christ Hospital Health Network, Cincinnati.
Quesada grew up in Cuba before moving to Miami. She earned her Bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Florida. She received her MD and MHS degrees from Yale University School of Medicine. This was followed by a residency in internal medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and a cardiovascular research fellowship at the Smidt Heart Institute of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she worked with C. Noel Bairey Merz.
Quesada is the medical director of The Women's Heart Center at Christ Hospital Health Network, Cincinnati, where she holds the Ginger Warner Endowed Chair in Women's Cardiovascular Health. Quesada established The Women's Heart Center and the Coronary Microvascular and Vasomotor Dysfunction (CMVD) program at The Christ Hospital as of 2020.
Quesada studies cardiovascular diseases and the long-term effects of persistent social and economic factors such as childhood adversity, financial disadvantage, intimate partner violence and caregiver stress, all of which disproportionately affect women. Women are encouraged to improve health and reduce stress through exercise, mindfulness and yoga, and to seek support from health and mental health resources. Quesada is fluent in Spanish and works to improve the health of Latina women, who are both at higher risk and culturally diverse, through the Latina Heart Health Awareness Campaign.
Quesada researches connections between hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and cardiovascular disease. Pregnant women who experience preeclampsia have up to a fourfold risk for early heart disease. Quesada's center is also part of the WARRIOR trial (Women's Ischemia Trial to Reduce Events in Non-Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease, NCT03417388) and the FREEDOM Trial, using cell therapy to attempt to repair coronary artery damage in cases such as coronary microvascular disease.