BEFORE THE HEART STUDY You may have already heard about how a massive-scale public health study based in Framingham profoundly changed the body of research on a deadly and widespread disease.
But before the iconic Framingham Heart Study begin in 1948 and put the Massachusetts town’s focus on public health on the map, there was an earlier iteration: the Framingham Tuberculosis Study, which took place from 1916-1923 and, according to Framingham History Center executive director Anne Murphy, was the first community-based participatory health study in the world.
In honor of World TB Day on Thursday, March 24, the Framingham History Center presents “The Whole World is Watching Framingham,” with Dr. Alfred DeMaria Jr., medical director and state epidemiologist at the Massachusetts Bureau of Infectious Disease, and Kathy Hursen, Framingham’s public health nurse and coordinator of the TB clinic from 1989-1995, discussing the far-reaching but little-known significance of this slice of local history.
“This was the first communitywide public health project ever conducted to prevent a disease,” Hursen said. “The entire community got involved. Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death at that time. This was the first study to prove that a major disease could be prevented and reduced in the United States. It was replicated around the world, and researchers used what they learned from this study and its success when they designed the Framingham Heart Study.”
The talk takes place Thursday, March 24, at 7 p.m. at Historic Village Hall, 2 Oak St., Framingham. Suggested donation is $5. For more information, go to www.framinghamhistory.org.