The Framingham Heart Study - online lecture

In 1948, not long after former US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died from a stroke, Framingham was just another small town outside of Boston.
That year scientists signed up 5,000 people to take part in regular medical tests, hoping to unlock the mysteries of cardiovascular health.

Seventy-three years later the ground-breaking Framingham Heart Study, run by The National Institute of Health and Boston University, is famous as the world’s longest running population study.

It has been behind some of the most important discoveries in modern medicine, many of which we now take for granted, including that smoking causes cancer and the impact of cholesterol, blood pressure and obesity on the heart.

Nearly a century on, generations of Framingham residents, including the original group’s children and grandchildren, continue to take regular tests, allowing scientists to examine the effect of ageing on disease and even what impact our health choices now may have on the DNA of our descendants in years to come.

In this virtual program, join the study’s director, Dr Dan Levy, for a colorful and detailed account of how this little town changed medical history forever, and its continued importance today.

Dr Levy’s book, Change of Heart: Unraveling the Mysteries of Cardiovascular Disease, upon which this talk is based, is available online.

He graduated with an MD from Boston University School of Medicine in 1980 and joined the study in 1984, becoming its fourth director in 1994.

He is also a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, holds an adjunct faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School and has published more than 400 articles in leading medical journals.

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This is a Virtual Online Event and a link to join the Zoom presentation will be sent prior to the event (in your confirmation email and at 5pm the day of).

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