• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Heart Study Pioneer Dr. Dawber Dies at 92

Posted on: Wednesday, 30 November 2005, 15:00 CST

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. - Dr. Thomas Royle Dawber, who transformed the medical world's understanding of heart disease as director of the Framingham Heart Study, one of the most important research projects of the 20th century, has died at 92.

Dawber died Nov. 23 in Florida after a battle with Alzheimer's disease, his daughter, Dr. Nancy Dawber, said Wednesday.

He led the Framingham Heart Study for two decades beginning in 1949, a year after it was founded by the U.S. Public Health Service to help discover the causes of heart disease and find ways to prevent it.

At the time, the study was considered little more than a "fool's errand," current director Dr. Daniel Levy said.

Shortly after Dawber's arrival, Framingham recruited a sample group of 5,209 volunteers to identify the causes of cardiovascular disease. Since then, the study has tracked the volunteers - and now their children - throughout their lives, conducting detailed physical examinations and lab tests every two years.

Framingham researchers have published 1,300 scientific papers unlocking the mysteries of heart disease and strokes.

A key finding came in 1961, when researchers linked cholesterol levels and blood pressure to an increased risk of heart disease. A 1988 report associated heart disease with "type A" behavior, characterized by tenseness and aggression.

"If it wasn't for Dawber, you wouldn't have heard about the Framingham Heart Study," said Dr. William Castelli, who directed the project from 1979 to 1995. "His contribution is so enormous you would have to place him with the most outstanding physicians in the history of the United States."

Dawber also helped save the study from extinction in 1968, two years after his tenure ended, when the federal government was considering shutting the 20-year study down because it had run its course.

Dawber, then chairman of preventative medicine at Boston University, led a campaign that raised more than $500,000 to save the study, said Dr. Philip Wolf, principal investigator of the study. A few years later, he arranged a partnership between Boston University and the study that continues today, Wolf said.

Dawber is survived by two children, including his son, John, and two granddaughters.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

More News in this Category