150 South Huntington Avenue
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
The VA General Medicine Fellowship site is located at the VA Hospital within walking distance from the Harvard School of Public Health. The Massachusetts VA Epidemiology Research and Information Center (MAVERIC) is also located there and provides administrative support and research services required for a successful fellowship. This includes SAS programmers, biostatisticians, information technology, and a host of highly trained and experienced faculty and staff.
The mission of MAVERIC is to enhance health care delivery in the Veterans Administration (VA) system by promoting the conduct of VA-based population research relevant to the needs of veterans and to facilitate the transfer of vital epidemiologic information to Veterans Health Administration (VHA) providers and administrators. Dr. J. Michael Gaziano, a cardiovascular epidemiologist with seven years of research experience, leads the Center. Program Co-Directors include Drs. Richard E. Scranton and James W. Levenson, both of whom are Fellowship alumni.
Researchers at the Center conduct a wide range of observational studies in chronic disease with emphasis on cardiovascular, diabetes, and prostate cancer epidemiology. In addition, they conduct health services research using large administrative databases covering a variety of medical issues.
A few examples from recent Fellows' research include:
- Physician awareness of their own cholesterol levels
- Determination of the association of prednisone use and fracture risk in the VA
- Predictors of 14-year changes in the total to HDL cholesterol ratio
- Prevalence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension in the Veteran Affairs Healthcare System
- Impact of a mandatory switch in statin therapy on LDL goal attainment
- Assessment of traditional coronary risk factors as predictors for incident hypertension
- Fit versus fat: determination of the interaction between being fit and obese on CVD risk in women
- Insulin resistance indices and the risk for CVD and incident DM in the NAS cohort
- Determination of the rate of concurrent use of simvastatin with drugs that potentate the risk for adverse reaction
- Obesity and CVD risk among diabetics