WHI News

WHI Profile in celebration of NHLBI’s 75th anniversary, featuring a WHI Participant

A paper studying the association between radon and stroke in woman has been published in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology

Registration is now open for the 2023 WHI Investigators Meeting! Please see the attached link for registration information. More details to follow.

On February 1st, the NYT Magazine published an article describing some perimenopausal women’s struggles with menopause and the role of hormone therapy in relieving symptoms. The WHI hormone trials are cast in a rather unfavorable light in this article, mostly because the trial was not designed to address the concerns of perimenopausal women. The WHI Steering Committee has written a letter to the editor of the NYT in response, which can be found below.

What a difficult year this has been for us. Sadly, we must inform you of the passing of one of the major intellectual leaders in the WHI. Dr. Lewis Kuller passed away last night after some months of declining health.

The WHI supplement, titled: “The Impact, Experience, and Challenges of COVID-19: The Women’s Health Initiative” is now available on line.

It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of the passing yesterday morning of our most valued colleague and friend, Dr. Rebecca Jackson.

JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH, MACP, whose pioneering research has contributed to the understanding of the causes of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, is the 2022 recipient of the Alma Dea Morani Renaissance Woman Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation.

Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, Ph.D., is the recipient of the Bengt Winblad Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a professor of health policy and management (School of Public Health) and associate of the Center for Health Equity (School of Medicine) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

If you are interested in placing your name forward for consideration as the WHI Science Accelerator at Large or would like to nominate someone for this role, please carefully read through the attached documents and complete the nomination form. If you plan to nominate someone other than yourself, you must seek their agreement prior to submitting their name. The selected candidate will assume his or her role on December 1, 2022.

It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Gerardo Heiss, M.D., M.Sc., Ph.D., FAHA, the W.R. Kenan, JR. Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology, and the Principal Investigator of the former WHI Clinical Center/Field Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill on Saturday, June 11.

Join us for an in person investigator meeting at the Hilton Dulles Washington Airport in Herndon, VA on May 5th & 6th! Registration and additional information can be found here: Please register and book your hotel room by April 13th at midnight (ET) in order to secure a hotel booking under our current meeting rate.

This webinar, scheduled for March 29th, will include presentations of results from both the COSMOS Main Study and the COSMOS-Mind ancillary study.

Daily multivitamin use improved cognitive function after 3 years, while cocoa extract did not have significant effects on cognition. Other COSMOS studies related to cognition are ongoing.

The NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health is hosting “Advancing NIH Research on the Health of Women: A 2021 Conference.” Conducted virtually on Wednesday, October 20th beginning at 9:00am ET/6:00am PT, the focus of the meeting will address three topics in particular: 1) clinical practices related to rising maternal morbidity and mortality rates; 2) increasing rates of chronic debilitating conditions in women; and 3) stagnant cervical cancer survival rates.

The WHI CCC published a new release of the WHI investigator datasets. Read more about new and updated datasets, changes to how some datasets are categorized, and updates to the website.

The COVID-19 Survey 1 dataset was released on 8/6/21. The dataset (f190_covid1_inv.dat) includes all surveys returned by 12/31/2020. Access to the dataset is granted after a paper proposal has been approved by the P&P committee and a data use agreement signed. Please view the data dictionary to learn more.

The COVID-19 Response Grant will help to fund an upcoming follow-up survey of WHI participants, seeking new information about their well-being, vaccination status, and healthcare access and utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The award was presented by The American Society of Preventive Oncology for outstanding scientific work in the areas of preventive oncology, cancer control and/or cancer prevention