Dr. William A. Neal, a leading scholar in cardiovascular disease prevention and epidemiology at West Virginia University, will discuss cardiovascular disease risk factor screening, intervention and associated research from 3-4 p.m. Monday, April 22 at the WVU Coliseum, room 172.

Neal’s lecuture, “Public Health and the Land Grant University,” is free and open to the public.

“Dr. Neal will discuss intervention and research efforts which to date have screened more than 150,000 children and selected parents from every West Virginia county,” said Sean Bulger, associate professor, Department of Coaching and Teaching Studies at WVU’s College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences.

Neal served as the chair of the Department of Pediatrics at WVU for 13 years. As the first medical director of the WVU Children’s Hospital he guided the expansion of primary and subspecialty services as the hospital became the state’s flagship institution for children.

Since 1998, his career has focused on cardiovascular disease prevention and epidemiology. Neal instituted a school-based risk factor screening, intervention, and research program known as the Coronary Artery Risk Detection in Appalachian Communities (CARDIAC).

The project has been consistently supported by the WV legislature, and various related research endeavors have been supported at the national level, as well as by the Benedum Foundation, Bulger said.

“Due to his unique position in spearheading collaborative projects, Dr. Neal can address the work conducted jointly by the WVU Department of Pediatrics, CPASS, and other academic units on campus including a variety of school, family, and community-based physical activity interventions designed to impact public health in West Virginia,” Bulger said.

“Dr. Neal’s present focus is on facilitating adoption of a patient-centered medical home model by primary care practices statewide as a means of preventing and treating childhood and adolescent obesity.”

Neal attended Wheeling Jesuit College, earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Xavier University and his medical degree from WVU. He served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam and as a medical resident at the University of Minnesota before returning to WVU. He is the co-author of several books and more than 70 articles on heart disease in children.

For more information on the event, contact sean.bulger@mail.wvu.edu

-WVU-

gd/3/28/13

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CONTACT: Kimberly Cameon, CPASS
304-293-0827; Kimberly.Cameon@mail.wvu.edu