ABC News names Dr. Tara Narula, Chief Medical Correspondent

Dr. Tara Narula, a cardiologist who has contributed over the years to CBS, CNN, NBC and Oprah Winfrey’s magazine, has been named chief medical correspondent at ABC News, a position that has become more prominent in recent years as news outlets struggle to tell. viewers details of care and treatment when scientific research has become increasingly politicized.

Narula is a board-certified cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, where she serves as associate director of the Women’s Heart Program. She is also an associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine, Hofstra/Northwell and director of communications for the Katz Institute of Women’s Health in Northwell. She also serves as a fellow of the American College of Cardiology.

She signed on for a stint as a medical correspondent at CNN in 2022 and 2023 before becoming a contributor to NBC News.

“We are incredibly excited to have Dr. Narula join ABC News and work across our programs and stations as part of our ongoing commitment to providing our audience with fact-based health and medical news,” said Debra OConnell, President for ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks, in a statement.

ABC News elevated its former chief medical correspondent, Dr. Jen Ashton, for a prominent role. Ashton co-hosted the afternoon news program “GMA3” where she helped inform the audience about the latest developments during the coronavirus pandemic.

Those correspondents — others include CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta and CBS News’ Jonathan LaPook—often help translate complicated information about biology, disease and science to a lay audience. Their job has been made more difficult in recent years by misinformation about everything from treatment to drug effectiveness spread by social media.

After graduating from Stanford University with degrees in economics and biology, Dr. Narula earned his medical degree at the USC Keck School of Medicine. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Harvard University/Brigham and Women’s Hospital and her fellowship training in cardiology at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Narula joined the Lenox Hill Heart & Vascular Institute in New York in 2010, where she continues to provide outpatient consultative care.

Dr. Darien Sutton, ABC News medical correspondent, will continue to report across ABC News programs and platforms alongside Dr. Narula.

“I am honored to join one of the most trusted news organizations in this role,” said Dr. Narula in a statement. “I learned early on from my father, who is a physician, that it is a privilege to work in the medical field, and now I look forward to reporting on new health and medical advances in wellness and resilience and helping people live their best life.”