Media Briefing: UB Receives $8.2 Million to Extend Historic 'Women's Health Initiative'

Jean Wactawski-Wende, PhD, professor of social and preventive medicine and co-leader of UB's original $13 million Women's Health Initiative Vanguard Center, will provide details of a new $8.2 million award from the National Institutes of Health to the University at Buffalo to extend the WHI initiative from 2010 to 2015.

WHI is the largest clinical trial ever undertaken in the U.S., involving more than 162,000 women across the U.S., including 4,000 in Buffalo. The goal of WHI is to gather essential clinical data on the major diseases affecting women.

When: Friday, Oct. 8, 10:30 a.m. (Requests for interviews at alternate times will be accommodated)

Where: Jeanette Martin Room, 5th floor of Capen Hall, UB North Campus

Who: A WHI study participant from Western New York, as well as Wactawski-Wende, will be available to answer questions about this long-term study.

"The impact of this new WHI extension study is going to be huge," says Wactawski-Wende of the large national study to examine diseases affecting women.

UB has been selected to coordinate the research in nine institutions consolidated into the Northeast Region, one of the four regional centers organized by the NIH to carry out this new initiative.

Onsite contact: Lois Baker and John DellaContrada, University Communications, 716-361-3006.