Ind. Institute to Study Heart Disease (AP)

INDIANAPOLIS - The head of a newly formed medical research institute announced Tuesday that the group will launch a long-running study of heart disease and other illnesses, tracking patients' lifestyles and over factors over decades.

The project by the new Fairbanks Institute will differ from other research that takes a relatively narrow approach to addressing medical problems. Instead, researchers intend to examine many factors, including genetics and other physiological factors.

Cardiovascular disease is the nation's single biggest killer, and understanding who is at greatest risk of heart disease could lead to methods of reducing the risk.

"This institute should provide valuable information and a unique window into the future health of Americans," said Dr. Keith March, director for Indiana University's Indiana Center for Vascular Biology and Medicine.

He said the study would provide "a unique window into the future health of Americans" by studying genes, proteins and characteristics of cellular repair, along with individual health behaviors, and follow the participants over times.

The Indianapolis-based Fairbanks Foundation is providing a $10 million startup grant for the Fairbanks Institute.

Dr. Douglas K. Miller, the institute's principal investigator, said the study "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."

The study's goals will be aided by the fact that Indianapolis is among only a few cities of its size to use electronic medical records, which will streamline data collection for studies, said Leonard Betley, president of the Fairbanks Foundation.

Indiana falls in the worst third of states for deaths from heart disease; in 2003, more than 15,000 people died from the condition.

In its first two years, the institute plans to enroll about 1,000 patients in the study. Within five years the number of enrollees will swell to about 5,000.

Eventually the institute plans to expand its study to diseases like cancer, said David Johnson, president of BioCrossroads, a local nonprofit promoting the life sciences.

BioCrossroads is partnering with Indiana University, the Regenstrief Institute and others to form the Fairbanks Institute. The organization also received $500,000 from the Guidant Foundation.

___

Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com