Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications

The NHLBI Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications (DECA) plans and directs programs in epidemiologic studies, basic and applied behavioral research, demonstration and education research, and projects for disease prevention and health promotion, including large scale clinical trials. The research supported by the Division provides multidisciplinary approaches to heart and blood vessel, lung, and blood diseases, with a primary focus on cardiovascular disease. The Division supports research and development of biomedical scientists, utilizing research grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts. DECA is comprised of two programs, the Clinical Applications and Prevention Program and the Epidemiology and Biometry Program, and the Office of Biostatistics Research.

Clinical Applications and Prevention Program

The Clinical Applications and Prevention Program supports research into prevention of heart and vascular, pulmonary, and blood diseases through activities such as clinical trials, health promotion-disease prevention, community interventions, health education research, nutrition research, and behavioral medicine. In the area of clinical trials, it supports primarily large-scale, multicenter studies involving hypertension in the elderly, cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure, hyperlipidemia, and platelet aggregation. The behavioral medicine programs encourage basic and clinical collaborations between biomedical and behavior scientists. The prevention and education programs support research to test effectiveness and demonstrate capability of preventive interventions that are designed to reduce cardiovascular risk factors. Special population groups, e.g., minorities and children in social units such as the school and workplace are often studied. Ongoing programs include studies of prevention and treatment of hypertension; hyperlipidemia, obesity, and other risk factors in children and adolescents; the response of patients and medical care systems to symptoms of cardiovascular disease in blacks; and community-wide prevention programs.

Epidemiology and Biometry Program

The Epidemiology and Biometry Program supports and conducts epidemiological studies of heart and vascular, lung, and blood diseases in defined populations in the United States and other countries. It focuses on development and progression of cardiovascular disease risk factors in children and young adults; development and progression of atherosclerosis measured non-invasively or at autopsy in middle-aged or older adults; and development and progression of overt cardiovascular and pulmonary disease in older adults. Also emphasized are genetic and environmental influences on cardiovascular disease and its risk factors; trends in incidence, prevalence, and mortality from cardiovascular disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy; and relationships between insulin, insulin resistance, and overt diabetes and cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. Other programs investigate incidence of and mortality from cardiovascular, lung, and blood diseases. Research strategies apply family, longitudinal, demographic information and vital statistics to study natural history, etiology, and epidemiology of those diseases.

Office of Biostatistics Research

The Office of Biostatistics Research (OBR) provides statistical expertise to members of all Divisions of NHLBI and performs diverse functions in the planning, design, implementation and analysis of NHLBI-sponsored studies. In these activities, the OBR has primary responsibility for providing objective, statistically sound, and medically relevant solutions to problems. When presented with a problem for which techniques are not yet available, the OBR is expected to obtain a new and valid statistical solution. The OBR is concerned with designing efficient studies and monitoring data while studies are ongoing. All members of the professional staff have interests in statistical methodology which is relevant to clinical trials. Recent research interests include new methods for permitting extensions or early stopping during randomized clinical trials and methods for complex survival data, trials with multiple endpoints and trials including multiple treatments.

For further information, contact:

Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
National Institutes of Health
Two Rockledge Center, Suite 8100
6701 Rockledge Dr. MSC 7938
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-7938

Phone numbers are available in the Abbreviated Staff Directory.