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CENTERFOLDWomen's Health Study Drives Network Designby Linda NicastroIt may take some time to load in your browser! It should take less time to downoad than the gif! W ill a low-fat diet prevent breast cancer, colorectal cancer and coronary heart disease in women? Does hormone replacement therapy prevent coronary heart disease and osteoporosis? What is the effect of calcium and vitamin D supplements on bone fractures and certain cancers? The Women's Health Initiative, a comprehensive study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is seeking answers to questions such as these in a multicenter clinical trial that will span 15 years and involve more than 160,000 women ages 50 to 79. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) in Seattle, Wash., was awarded a $143 million contract from the NIH in 1992 to serve as the clinical coordinating center for data collection, management and analysis in the Women's Health Initiative study. In return, FHCRC designed a wide area network over frame relay that joins 50 institutions nationwide using an integrated data management and computing system. The wide area network includes dozens of local area networks at clinical centers around the country--each designed with the same core information technologies. As a clinical coordinat
ing center, the FHCRC serves as the information hub, overseeing the design, implementation and support of the network and ensuring the quality and usefulness of data.
The Women's Health Initiative is seeking post menopausal women for its study. In time, the organization's critical work may lead to answers--answers that will find solutions to alarming facts that one in eight women will develop breast cancer, that bone fractures will debilitate millions of women and that heart disease continues to be the number one killer of women.
Linda Nicastro can be reached at lnicastro@nwc.com. You can also
e-mail Linda directly
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