The council sets science policy for WHI, the largest study of women's health ever undertaken. Five hundred investigators at 40 clinical sites throughout the nation are studying 167,000 participants to see how diet, hormone replacement and other factors affect a woman's risk for heart disease, cancer and bone fractures. The study will conclude in the year 2005. Klea D. Bertakis, professor of medicine and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, has been appointed to the Medical Board of California by Gov. Pete Wilson. The board consists of 19 members who are responsible for licensing physicians and surgeons and disciplining licensees who abuse the law.
Members serve without a salary.
Appointments require Senate confirmation. Dena Towner, assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of pernatal diagnosis, has achieved triple certification. She is now board certified in maternal-fetal medicine as well as in genetics and obstetrics and gynecology. Paul FitzGerald, professor of cell biology and human anatomy, received a Distinguished Teaching Award from the campus division of the Academic Senate. Three of these awards are given annually during the spring quarter.