Dr. Annlouise R. Assaf

Annlouise Assaf, PhD, is an associate professor of medical science, Department of Community Health at Brown University.Dr. Assaf is a chronic disease epidemiologist who began her research career in the field of immunology at the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) in Buffalo.Her doctoral work was a randomized clinical trial of breast self-examination training methods in which almost 400 women were studied.Since leaving RPMI in 1983, Dr. Assaf has served as evaluation director, assistant to the program director, and co-principal investigator of the Pawtucket Heart Health Program.Dr. Assaf possesses a wide range of experience and expertise in the area of evaluation of community health programs.She has a special interest and expertise in designing and implementing evaluation prototypes, which can be used by a variety of organizations in different situations with different levels of staff expertise and budgetary resources.She is a member of the American Heart Association Women and Heart Disease Task Force and served on the Governor's Permanent Advisory Commission on Women's Committee on Health.Dr. Assaf has been involved in the early refining of the protocols of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) and other design features of the overall study, has served on the WHI Investigators' Committee, on the Design and Analysis Subcommittee, and the Behavioral Subcommittee.As principal investigator (PI) of the Women's Health Initiative, Dr. Assaf is very involved in many areas of women's health.Her center has recruited over 6,200 women into the study (the largest recruitment number of any of the 40 WHI centers).Program faculty have gained invaluable expertise in recruitment and retention of large numbers of women into clinical trials.

Annlouise Assaf, PhD, is an associate professor of medical science, Department of Community Health at Brown University.Dr. Assaf is a chronic disease epidemiologist who began her research career in the field of immunology at the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) in Buffalo.Her doctoral work was a randomized clinical trial of breast self-examination training methods in which almost 400 women were studied.Since leaving RPMI in 1983, Dr. Assaf has served as evaluation director, assistant to the program director, and co-principal investigator of the Pawtucket Heart Health Program.Dr. Assaf possesses a wide range of experience and expertise in the area of evaluation of community health programs.She has a special interest and expertise in designing and implementing evaluation prototypes, which can be used by a variety of organizations in different situations with different levels of staff expertise and budgetary resources.She is a member of the American Heart Association Women and Heart Disease Task Force and served on the Governor's Permanent Advisory Commission on Women's Committee on Health.Dr. Assaf has been involved in the early refining of the protocols of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) and other design features of the overall study, has served on the WHI Investigators' Committee, on the Design and Analysis Subcommittee, and the Behavioral Subcommittee.As principal investigator (PI) of the Women's Health Initiative, Dr. Assaf is very involved in many areas of women's health.Her center has recruited over 6,200 women into the study (the largest recruitment number of any of the 40 WHI centers).Program faculty have gained invaluable expertise in recruitment and retention of large numbers of women into clinical trials.This program and the opportunities it provides to scholars are important components of the Brown Program. (Research Priority Area - Prevention and Behavior Change and Epidemiology: women's health, menopause, chronic disease epidemiology)

Annlouise Assaf, PhD, is an associate professor of medical science, Department of Community Health at Brown University.Dr. Assaf is a chronic disease epidemiologist who began her research career in the field of immunology at the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) in Buffalo.Her doctoral work was a randomized clinical trial of breast self-examination training methods in which almost 400 women were studied.Since leaving RPMI in 1983, Dr. Assaf has served as evaluation director, assistant to the program director, and co-principal investigator of the Pawtucket Heart Health Program.Dr. Assaf possesses a wide range of experience and expertise in the area of evaluation of community health programs.She has a special interest and expertise in designing and implementing evaluation prototypes, which can be used by a variety of organizations in different situations with different levels of staff expertise and budgetary resources.She is a member of the American Heart Association Women and Heart Disease Task Force and served on the Governor,s Permanent Advisory Commission on Women,s Committee on Health.Dr. Assaf has been involved in the early refining of the protocols of the Women,s Health Initiative (WHI) and other design features of the overall study, has served on the WHI Investigators, Committee, on the Design and Analysis Subcommittee, and the Behavioral Subcommittee.As principal investigator (PI) of the Women,s Health Initiative, Dr. Assaf is very involved in many areas of women,s health.Her center has recruited over 6,200 women into the study (the largest recruitment number of any of the 40 WHI centers).Program faculty have gained invaluable expertise in recruitment and retention of large numbers of women into clinical trials.

Members (in alphabetical order): Annlouise R. Assaf, PhD (Brown University, Providence, RI); Tamsen Bassford, MD (University of Arizona, Tucson/Phoenix); Shirley A. A. Beresford, PhD (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle); Henry Black, MD (Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Ill); Denise Bonds, MD (Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC); Robert Brunner, PhD (University of Nevada, Reno); Robert Brzyski, MD (University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio); Bette Caan, DrPH (Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Oakland, Calif); Rowan Chlebowski, MD (Harbor-UCLA Research and Education Institute, Torrance, Calif); David Curb, MD (University of Hawaii, Honolulu); Margery Gass, MD (University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio); Jennifer Hays, PhD (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tex); Gerardo Heiss, MD (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill); Susan Hendrix, DO (Wayne State University School of Medicine/Hutzel Hospital, Detro

- Annlouise R. Assaf, Carol Wheeler, Charles Eaton, Michelle Cyr

Annlouise R. Assaf , a Brown University researcher working on a mammoth study that may answer some of the questions about hormone therapy , says her own doctor was asking her for advice on what to tell patients.

No one's willing to say , 'Don't do it , ' because it potentially should have quite a few benefits , Assaf says.

Assaf is lead investigator in Rhode Island for the Women's Health Initiative , a 12-year nationwide study of 161 , 000 menopausal women ( 6 , 200 from Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts ) that will reveal , among other things , whether taking hormones has any effect on heart disease and osteoporosis.

But the results won't be ready until 2005 at the earliest.

Meanwhile , Assaf has this advice : Know that there's no right answer.If your physician is trying to convince you one way or another , let her explain her thinking.She doesn't know the answer any more than the rest of us.No one knows the answer yet..

So a woman must look within herself , assess her own biological profile -- her family history , her risk for breast cancer and heart disease , her symptoms and how she feels about them.Then she must ask herself -- not What does my doctor think I should do?.
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When Assaf first began work on the Women's Health Initiative in 1993 , a gynecologist called her a Nazi for giving placebos to half the women instead of giving all of them the benefits of hormones.Like many gynecologists at the time , this doctor believed the verdict was already in on estrogen -- Take it ; it's good for you..Today , that doctor is probably awaiting the results of the study as eagerly as the rest of us.

Who knows which medical truth will next be toppled by new findings.That means , women , that you need to keep those computers humming.Keep reading.