The University of Texas Science Health Center at Houston
Did you know....
smokers have twice the risk for heart attack of nonsmokers and every day more than 3,000 young people become daily smokers?
Not coincidentally, cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in North America and smoking has been directly linked to it. The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHSCH) Medical School faculty conducts research in cardiovascular disease beginning at the molecular level, developing provocative new ideas and techniques to diagnose and treat cardiovascular conditions. UTHSCH School of Public Health faculty uses this cardiovascular disease research to reach populations, particularly children, in hopes of demonstrating effective prevention techniques.
Prevention has been a theme of research at UTHSCH throughout the last decade. With the Permanent Health Fund distributions, UTHSCH chose to expand and build upon prevention programs already in place. Programs enable students to be exposed to prevention early in their schooling. One such program is InterCon, UTHSCH's well-known outreach to K-16 institutions. InterCon is philosophically oriented to prevention and promotion of health. Through their network of InterCon partners across Texas, UTHSCH faculty and students enhance education in math, science, and reading and deliver short courses on prevention of smoking, heart disease, drugs, mental illness and so forth.
The UTHSCH Permanent Health Fund endowment, valued at $24.1 million as of August 31, 2001, distributed $1.2 million to support research for the enhancement of health of the citizens of Texas for the fiscal year ended 2001.
In responding to the state legislature's farsighted and generous plan to use proceeds from the tobacco settlement, UTHSCH seized the opportunity to build upon already adopted priorities: the comprehensive enhancement of research, including cardiovascular research, and prevention programs. Extending cardiovascular research and preventing young people from becoming smokers are particularly appropriate uses of Permanent Health Fund distributions.
