Chapter Meeting: November 5, 2006

TOPIC:

The Stanford Women's Health Initiative: Insights with Principal Investigator Dr. Marcia Stefanick

INTRODUCTION:

Dr Stefanick is Principal Investigator (PI) of Stanford's Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Center, which is now following ~3900 women (12% minority), now 60-90 years of age, who have participated in the WHI diet, hormone, or calcium/vitamin trials (focused on heart disease, breast and colorectal cancer and osteoporotic bone fractures) or a study of natural aging since 1995. She is also PI of NCI Women's Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) trial, which is following 500 of the 3000 breast cancer survivors enrolled in this NCI trial to determine whether a plant-based diet can prevent breast cancer recurrence. Furthermore, she is PI of MrOs, Study of Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (the MrOS study) which is following the health status of nearly 1000 of the 6000 men, aged 65 and over, in the NIAMS MrOS study, with particular interest in osteoporotic fractures and prostate cancer and the role of Sleep on cardiovascular health.

BIOGRAPHY:

Dr. Stefanick is actively involved in Women's Health @ Stanford (based in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology) and is currently developing a women's heart health program, HerHeart, for Stanford's Cardiovascular Institute. She is also Leader for the Cancer Prevention and Control Program of Stanford's Comprehensive Cancer Center and Program Director for Stanford's Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) mentorship program, funded by the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health.

Dr. Stefanick has been the investigator-elected Chair of the WomenÕs Health Initiative (WHI) Steering and Executive Committees from 1998 to 2005, at which time she was elected as Chair of the WHI Extension Study Executive Committee, which is overseeing the 5-year continuation of the project nationwide. She participates in a broad range of scientific activities for the NHLBI and American Heart Association. She has been invited to speak at many prominent national and international meetings in the area of chronic disease prevention and health promotion across the lifespan, for men and women, with a special interest in menopause and sex hormones on which she has published extensively, and she lectures on these topics to both undergraduates (including a Fall quarter Human Biology class) and medical school students at Stanford University. She also serves on the Admissions Committee for Stanford's Medical School.