Bio
Dr. McConnell is a native of Brooklyn, NY and attended MIT, obtaining his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering/Biomedical Engineering, followed by his MD at Stanford University. He returned to Boston and specialized in Cardiovascular Medicine and Cardiovascular Imaging at Brigham and Women’s and Beth Israel Hospitals and then joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School, where he also obtained a MS in Clinical Investigation. His early research discovery in echocardiography has become known as “McConnell’s sign.”
He joined the faculty at Stanford in 1998 and went on to become Professor of Medicine and Electrical Engineering and Molecular & Cellular Physiology (by courtesy). He directed clinical, research, and teaching programs in cardiovascular imaging, prevention, and digital health. He was Principal Investigator for the top-enrolling MyHeart Counts mobile health research study launched with Apple. In 2015 he joined Google/Alphabet leading cardiovascular and mobile health projects, including mobile/wearable products with Verily, Google Health, and Fitbit. He was most recently Chief Medical Officer and Head of Cardiovascular and Digital Health at identifeye HEALTH, with a mission to democratize screening and prevention of major health conditions.
Dr. McConnell continues to see patients in the Stanford Preventive Cardiology Clinic and mentor in the Stanford Biodesign program. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed articles and been the Principal Investigator of multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health and American Heart Association (AHA). He is a Fellow of the AHA, the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, and the American Society of Echocardiography. He is a founding member of the AHA’s Health Technologies Advisory Group and recently co-chaired AHA’s 2030 Impact Goal task force and the ACC-Consumer Technology Association’s guidance on Cardiovascular Technology Solutions. In 2022, Dr. McConnell was appointed by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the Board of Directors of the National Fitness Foundation.