FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 4, 2007
CONTACT: Matt Mackowiak
Sen. Hutchison Announces UTHSC-San Antonio Will Participate in the Nation’s Largest Children’s Health Study
Has been named a Study Center, awarded research contract
WASHINGTON -- Texas’ senior Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), today announced that the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSC-San Antonio) has been awarded a competitive contract by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help manage participant recruitment and data collection for the National Children's Study (NCS).
“Our Texas teaching hospitals are national leaders in research and patient care,” Sen. Hutchison said. “I am pleased that UTHSC-San Antonio has received this contract to apply its skills and expertise to what promises to be an important and informative study.”
According to the NIH, the NCS is the largest study to be conducted on the effects of environmental and genetic factors on child and human health in the United States. The project will follow a representative sample of 100,000 children from before birth to age 21, seeking information to prevent and treat some of the nation's most pressing health problems, including autism, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
UTHSC-San Antonio is one of twenty-two Study Centers awarded contracts today as a result of funding provided in a $69 million appropriation from Congress in fiscal year 2007. The NIH reports that study centers were selected based on rigorous criteria: a strong ability to collect data for the study, the ability to build extensive community networks for recruiting eligible women and newborns, and a demonstrated capability to protect the privacy of the information collected on participants.
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