Brown University, with lead partner Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, announced the award of a $12 million, five-year contract to expand its participation in the National Children's Study to include Bristol County, MA, at Bristol Community College on October 3, 2008. A year ago, Brown and Women & Infants were selected as part of 22 new centers that would take part in the Study, the largest long-term study of children's health and development ever conducted in the U.S. Researchers will partner with at Southcoast Hospitals, Morton Hospital in Taunton and Sturdy Memorial Hospital to conduct the study. "This expansion into Bristol County enables our researchers to look at the unique environmental factors that may impact the health and well-being of the residents of those communities," commented Constance A. Howes, president and CEO of Women and Infants Hospital. The Study will enroll a sample of 100,000 infants and follow them from before birth to age 21 in order to better understand the development of certain diseases and to identify the root causes of diseases such as asthma, autism and diabetes. Click here for the Herald News article about the announcement. For more information, contact Assistant Professor Patricia Markham Risica, DrPH, RD, at 401-863-6553.
 

(Top row, left) BCC Dean of Academic Affairs, Sarah L. G. Garrett, J.D., welcomes participants to the news conference announcing the grant award. (Top row, center) Terrie (Fox) Wetle, Ph.D., Associate Dean of Medicine,, Public Health and Public Policy for Brown University, describes the grant award, (Top row, right) Stephen L. Buka, ScD, Director of the Center for Population Health and Clinical Epidemiology at the Alpert Medical School, responds to questions about how the grant will be administered. (Middle row, right) Maureen G. Phipps, M.D., Associate Professor in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Community Health, talks about the benefits that research participants will receive. (Bottom row, left) NBC Channel 10 health news reporter Barbara Morse Silva poses some questions of the panel. (Bottom row, center) Marisa Quinn, Vice President of Public Affairs and University Relations for Brown University, closes the news conference. (Bottom row, right) Assistant Professor Patricia Markham Risica, DrPH, RD, talks with Fall River Health & Human Services Director Henry Vaillancourt, M.D., M.P.H., and Massachusetts Department of Public Health  Southeast Regional Director Ronald O'Connor following the press conference.