William B. Kannel

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William Bernard Kannel (born December 13, 1923 in Brooklyn , New York City , † August 20, 2011 in Natick , Massachusetts ) was an American cardiologist and epidemiologist . He is best known for his scientific work on the Framingham Study .

Life

Kannel briefly studied chemistry at the City College of New York , but was then called up as a soldier in World War II . He later earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida and graduated from the Medical College of Georgia ( University System of Georgia ) from his medical degree in 1949 . In the same year he began to work for the United States Public Health Service , first in Staten Island , New York , from 1951 for the Framingham Study, a large-scale cohort study started in 1948 on the health and disease of several thousand residents of the small town of Framingham , Massachusetts. In 1959, Kannel earned a master's degree from the Harvard School of Public Health . From 1966 to 1979, Kannel was - as successor to Thomas R. Dawber - director of the Framingham study, from 1979 to 1987 its head of research and professor of internal medicine and health sciences at the Boston University School of Medicine . Even after his retirement in 1987 - until shortly before his death - he remained scientifically active as part of the study. Kannel remained an officer in the American armed forces throughout his professional career, most recently with the rank of captain .

Kannel was married to Rita Ruth Lefkowitz and the couple had four children. Kannell died of colon cancer .

Work and awards

Kannell published more than 600 scientific publications . The results and methods of the Framingham Study published under his leadership were groundbreaking for the field of epidemiology and helped a preventive approach in medicine to breakthrough - particularly in cardiology - by identifying the most important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases . Kannel coined the term “risk factor”, gave an early warning of the dangers of hormone replacement therapy and helped identify genetic risk factors for cardiovascular diseases with follow-up studies that included the children and grandchildren of the participants in the first study.

In 1975, Kannel was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal . In 1976 he received the Gairdner Foundation International Award “for his careful epidemiological studies that have uncovered cardiovascular risk factors and important implications for the prevention of these diseases” . Kannel received honorary doctorates from the University of Gothenburg , the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and the Medical College of Ohio .

Kannel was a co-editor of the medical science journals Hypertension , the American Journal of Cardiology, and the American Heart Journal .

The American Society for Preventive Cardiology and the American Heart Association Council for Epidemiology and Prevention have been awarding a William B. Kannel Memorial Lectureship as a scientific honor.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ William B. Kannel MD, MPH, FACP, FACC at the Gairdner Foundation (gairdner.org); Retrieved July 22, 2013
  2. ^ William B. Kannel, MD, Memorial Lectureship Fund in Preventive Cardiology at the American Heart Association (heart.org); accessed on May 24, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Kannel, William B.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kannel, William Bernard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American cardiologist and epidemiologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York City
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 2011
Place of death Natick , Massachusetts