$10 million gift funds innovative predictive he...( INDIANAPOLIS -- A $10 million gift from...),Health

That generosity and an additional gift of $500,000 from the Guidant Foundation will create a long-term health study led by scientists at the IU School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. and colleagues. Together the gifts will establish the Fairbanks Institute, a long-term, predictive health study dedicated to building healthier communities nationwide.

"Indiana residents will be the beneficiaries of this collaborative venture to improve health and provide physicians nationwide with a better understanding of how to prevent disease through positive interventions," said Douglas K. Miller, M.D., principal investigator of the Fairbanks Institute and the Richard M. Fairbanks Professor in Aging Research at the IU School of Medicine. "The institute will put Indiana on the map as a national leader of studies to predict health outcomes and to design personal, health system and community interventions to prevent the common diseases that result in excess disability with aging. To achieve this goal, we are designing a collaborative study that brings together expertise in population health, biologics (biological information in blood) and medical informatics. "

The burden of chronic illnesses among the aging population already is a key interest for both IU medical school and Regenstrief researchers. This initiative will underscore the importance of their work. The initial phase of this effort will be to look at risk factors that can predict cardiovascular disease. IU/Krannert Institute cardiologist Keith L. March, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Indiana Center for Vascular Biology and Medicine and the Cryptic Masons Medical Research Foundation Professor in Vascular Biology Research, will lead the biologics core efforts of t
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Contact: Mary Hardin or Cindy Fox Aisen
mhardin@iupui.edu
317-274-7722
Indiana University
21-Mar-2006