Thomas R. Dawber

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thomas Royle "Roy" Dawber (born January 18, 1913 in Duncan , British Columbia , † September 23, 2005 in Naples , Florida ) was an American cardiologist and epidemiologist , who was primarily recognized for his achievements in connection with the Framingham Study is known.

Live and act

Dawber's father was a Methodist clergyman who emigrated to Canada with his wife from Cheshire , England, in 1911 . The family later moved to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . Roy Dawber graduated from Haverford College in Haverford , Pennsylvania in 1933 and studied medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston , Massachusetts from 1933 to 1937 . From 1937 to 1949 he worked for the United States Coast Guard at Brighton Marine Hospital near Boston, most recently as chief physician of internal medicine.

In 1949, Dawber took over from Gilcin Meadors to lead the Framingham Study , a large-scale cohort study launched in 1948 on the health and disease of several thousand residents of the small town of Framingham , Massachusetts. While initially conceived as a mix between observational and interventional studies , Dawber made the study focus on identifying the causes of heart disease because too little was known about possible therapies at the time. Dawber made a special contribution to the acceptance of the study by the residents of Framingham. Dawber earned a Masters in Health Sciences from the Harvard School of Public Health . In 1966 Dawber went to Boston University as professor of preventive medicine . When the US government's funding for the Framingham Study ran out in 1968, Dawber organized the continuation of the study through private donations. The National Institutes of Health later resumed funding, but the research team stayed in Boston.

Dawber has published more than 100 scientific publications , including the pioneering study to identify cardiovascular risk factors for the first time , particularly arterial hypertension , hypercholesterolemia , cardiac arrhythmias and - at the time "possibly" - tobacco smoking . In 1988, Dawber's group published a paper on the association between "Type A behavior" (ambition, tension, aggression) and heart disease. Other important epidemiological findings of the Framingham study are the connection between arterial hypertension and stroke or the protective effect of high density lipoprotein (HDL). The Framingham study continues and now includes children and grandchildren of the first subjects.

Dawber is said to have been nominated three times for a Nobel Prize. In 1976 he and William B. Kannel received the Gairdner Foundation International Award together with William B. Kannel “for their careful epidemiological studies that have uncovered cardiovascular risk factors and important implications for the prevention of these diseases” .

In 1980, Dawber retired at the age of 67. He moved to Naples , Florida . In 1995 his wife died of Parkinson's disease . At the age of 90, Roy Dawber contracted Alzheimer's disease , of which he died in 2005. He left a son and a daughter and two grandchildren.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ WB Kannel , TR Dawber, A. Kagan, N. Revotskie, J. Stokes: Factors of risk in the development of coronary heart disease - six year follow-up experience. The Framingham Study. In: Annals of internal medicine. Volume 55, July 1961, pp. 33-50, ISSN  0003-4819 . PMID 13751193 .
  2. ↑ Thomas R. Dawber MD, MPH, FACP at the Gairdner Foundation (gairdner.org); Retrieved August 12, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Dawber, Thomas R.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dawber, Thomas Royle; Dawber, Roy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American cardiologist and epidemiologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Duncan (British Columbia)
DATE OF DEATH September 23, 2005
Place of death Naples (Florida)