City Honors Framingham Heart Study’s 75th Anniversary

FRAMINGHAM - A ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Framingham Heart Study was held at Nevins Hall on Monday, April 8.

City, state, and federal officials—including U.S. Representative for Massachusetts Katherine Clark—were joined by medical professionals and local residents at the Memorial Building. There, attendees celebrated the research project’s work, which started in 1948.

“You are part of a critical contribution to healthcare—not just to Framingham, not just to our country, but to all people,” Clark said at the Memorial Building.

“You have the rare distinction of making impacts of truly global proportions.”

The Framingham Heart Study was initiated by what is now known as the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute as a way to investigate cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of serious illness and death in the United States. Research has looked into the causes and symptoms of heart disease, as they’ve identified major risk factors such as high blood pressure, a lack of physical activity, and smoking. The research’s findings have contributed to around 1,200 articles in top medical journals.

“Now, over the decades since then, Framingham is contributing to the knowledge of many conditions: heart, brain, lung, liver, kidneys, bones, blood, and well beyond,” Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Dr. David Goff told attendees on Monday.

Over 15,000 people have been monitored over the past 75 years through the study. The participants span across three generations, from the original men and women who were recruited to their children and grandchildren.

The Framingham Heart Study continues to make strides in its understanding of cardiovascular disease. Researchers note that they are currently looking into how genetic factors may contribute to heart problems by using genetic material from the cell lines of all generations of the study.