WHI 2010-2015
Aging, Cognition and Functional Status (ACFS) Scientific Interest Group (SIG) Minutes
Conference Call 1-866-618-2448 Passcode: 9920978
October 9, 2012 2-3 pm (EDT)
Attendees: Christine Bell, Bob Brunner, Beth Dugan, Dale Burwen, Ira Driscoll, Victor Henderson, Nancy King, Andrea LaCroix, Dorothy Lane, Iris Leng, Ramon Luis, Todd Manini, Martha Payne, Steve Rapp, Susan Resnick, Carson Smith, Bev Snively, Marcia Stefanick, Hilary Tindle, Leslie Tinker, Sarah Tom, Lesley Vaughan
Absentees: Leslie Arendel, Deb Barnes, Jeanette Beasley, Rosemary Blieszner, Gretchen Brenes, Shirley Beresford, Crystal Cene, JC Chen, Melissa Clark, Barbara Cochrane, Suzanne Danhauer, Maggie DeBon, Carol Derby, Peggy Dilworth-Anderson, Yohannes Endeshaw, Kirk Erickson, Mark Espeland, Joe Goveas, Lauren Hale, Kevin High, Mark Hlatky, Denise Houston, Julie Hunt, Becky Jackson, Li Jiao, Dae Kim, Grace Klein, Dorothy Lane, Beth Lewis, Wenjun Li, Lewis Kuller, Eric LeBlanc, Cathy Lee, Claudine Legault, Wenjun Li, Simin Liu, Kamal Masaki, Ellen McGough, Yvonne Michael, Jerry Mysiw, Judy Ockene, Lawrence Phillips, Eileen Rillamas-Sum, Karen Roberto, Rebecca Rossom, Donald Royall, Tina Savla, Kenneth Schmader, Teresa Seeman, Regina Shih, Tetyana Shippee, Sally Shumaker, Kaycee Sink, Katie Stone, Jean Wactawski-Wende, Sylvia Wassertheli-Smoller Bob Wallace, Nelson Watts, Nancy Woods, Oleg Zaslavsky
TOPIC / KEY POINTS / ACTION ITEMS (PERSON)August minutes / Approved
Introduction of new members / § N/A
Updates / § The RFQ is closed. WHI Committee members are in process of reviewing the ones that were submitted. The CTC has been asked to look at a budget for 1 page 2 sides. 10 Proposals were submitted.
§ RFA is closed. These will be reviewed soon.
§ 2015-2020 Extension
ü Garnet had a call last week with the SIG leaders. She asked for input on new directions/ideas that should be considered if WHI was extended to 2020. s.
ü Suggestions on how to make SIGs and WHI in general run better: / Thoughts on Large Simple Trials:
o Hilary Tindle – I was drawing on a recent trial data of a farnesyltransferase inhibitor (FTI) for progeria, the rare and dramatic disease of rapid aging, in which patients typically die in their teens or twenties of CVD related causes. The identification of the defective LMNA gene transformed progeria into a “laminopathy,” a now growing class of diseases caused by problems with the nuclear lamins. “Normal” aging is thought to involve many of the same processes as laminopathies and give this new clinical trial implication beyond progeria. I spoke with Leslie Gordon, the first author of that PNAS study, who said she thought MERCK was not going to use that particular FTI in trials for aging, but I don’t know if that is definite. If we did a trial of FTIS (which are safe for adults and children) in WHI, outcomes could include traditional conditions of aging, including CVD and cancer, but also cognition, bone density, hearing, disability, as well as biological markers of inflammation, telomere length, telomerase activity, and other mechanistic outcomes.
o Steve – An intervention with older adults using Wii games with movement measured physical and cognitive measures. A study involving effects of such an intervention on physical and cognitive function outcomes would be interesting.
o Todd Manini – One idea came from the WHI SE RC Research Summit on the discussion on weight loss trial in obese WHI women. We have a call scheduled October 27th to discuss this further.
o Carson Smith – Biological sample brain banking and preserving tissue to pull in the future for AS and proposals. Possibly muscle tissue?
Ø Susan Resnick noted this is very expensive so if you plan to do this, make sure people will use the data
o One initiative for the extension would be to target recruitment of minorities
o Marcia Stefanick – we are still working on our large simple trial
o Steve Rapp – Make it faster to get data for papers and/or ancillary studies
o Steve Rapp – Making it easier for new comers to WHI to access information and be more oriented
o Marcia Stefanick – A problem is folks are going forward on ideas outside of the SIGs when its being discussed on the calls and no one knows someone else is working on that topic. A suggestion is to let SIG leaders know if you are working on a topic so they can convey that to other SIG’s , better communication
Ø Steve Rapp suggested having joint SIG calls but Susan reminded him we tried that and we don’t have the phone lines to do this
o Marcia suggested putting in place liaisons
o Steve suggested polling members of SIGs to l determine who might represent the ACFS SIG on calls with other SIGS and report to this SIG
o Minutes of SIG calls are posted on WHI website
Ancillary Study Updates / § Sleep – In order to move it forward we have proposed a feasibility study that will test the ApneaLink device. We want to access 50 women for a 5-7 day period. Susan Redline will analyze the data.
§ Late Life Planning – Christina Bell gave an update that at the SE RC Research Summit, Crystal Cene informed her she was interested in an Ancillary Study on social networks and advance care planning. We will have a call soon to discuss this further.
§ Driving – It is currently being reviewed as an R01
Next Call: The next call will be Tuesday, November 6, 2012 from 2-3pm (EDT). The calls will continue thereafter on the 2nd Tuesday of the month from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (EDT) with the call in information of 1-866-618-2448Passcode: 9920978.
Recorder: Sonya Ashburn