UB first in U.S. to meet WHI recruitment goals

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Services Editor

UB's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine was selected in 1993 to be one of the initiative's 16 Vanguard Clinical Centers. These sites established the study's design and developed the operating procedures for the remaining centers. A total of 4,000 women in Western New York have volunteered to take part in this landmark study.

The WHI's goal is to arrive at answers on the relationship of hormone replacement therapy and various aspects of diet to women's long-term health. A third part of the project involves tracking women over the 12-year study period to determine lifestyle habits that are beneficial or harmful. The study will seek to determine risk factors for heart disease, the largest killer of women; breast, colon and endometrial cancers; osteoporosis, and Alzheimer's disease. The WHI eventually will involve 163,000 women nationally between the ages of 50 and 79.

Karen Falkner, recruitment director for UB's Vanguard Clinical Center, said being the first to reach its recruitment goals is a significant accomplishment for UB, and a testament to the generosity and insight of the women in Western New York.

The university's share of the grant for the WHI study is $11 million spread over 12 years.

UB's recruitment success in this clinical trial will help make it a prime site for future investigations, Falkner said.

Co-principal investigators on the trial are Maurizio Trevisan, professor and chair of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, and Jean Wactawski-Wende, assistant professor of gynecology and obstetrics.