An expert in hypertension and cholesterol lowering agents, especially in minority populations, will give Thursday’s John S. Latta Lectureship, sponsored by the UNMC College of Medicine Alumni Association.
Jackson Wright Jr., M.D., Ph.D., program director of the Case Western Reserve University General Clinical Research Center and director of the Clinical Hypertension Program at CWRU/University Hospitals of Cleveland, will present “Does it Matter What Drug is Used to Lower Blood Pressure,” at noon in the Durham Research Center Auditorium.
An experienced clinical investigator, Dr. Wright’s primary research interest is in the clinical pharmacology of antihypertensive and cholesterol lowering agents, especially in minority populations.
“Dr. Wright is a giant in doing longitudinal large-scale studies involving the African American population,” said Rubens Pamies, M.D., vice-chancellor for academic affairs and dean of graduate studies. “He’s been a pioneer in proving that it is possible to recruit and sustain African American patients, particularly those in lower socioeconomic groups for long-term studies. His contribution, therefore, in identifying treatments to help reduce health disparities in the African American population is enormous.
“His research team recently published results from an eight-year trial that proved that older, less expensive blood pressure drugs do a better job of saving lives than newer, more costly medications. Fifty to 60 million Americans have been diagnosed with high blood pressure and hypertension is one of the leading killers of African Americans. The cost of medications to treat high blood pressure is now an estimated $15.5 billion a year. Dr. Wright’s study shows that switching patients back to the lost costly drugs could provide annual savings in direct costs of between $250 and $600 per patient.
“Also, while I was the associate dean for student affairs Case Western, I saw on a daily basis how committed and responsive Dr. Wright was to issues surrounding student needs and health care workforce diversity,” Dr. Pamies said. “I’m just delighted he is coming to UNMC for several days of lectures and interaction with our faculty and students.”
Among his many professional affiliations, Dr. Wright is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of the American Heart Association, and the Association of Black Cardiologists.
On Friday, Dr. Wright will give the keynote address at UNMC’s cardiovascular research symposium. His presentation, titled “JNC-7 and Implications of Recent Clinical Outcome Trials on the Management of Hypertension in the Elderly,” will be at 12:10 p.m. in the Eppley Science Hall.
Dr. Wright is a professor of medicine in the Division of Hypertension at CWRU and chief of the Hypertension Section at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Administration Medical Center. He currently serves on the National High Blood Education Program Coordinating Committee, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) advisory panel responsible for coordinating high blood pressure control efforts in the United States (and co-chaired the treatment section of JNC-7). He also serves on the Advisory Committee for the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health.
His NIH research experience includes service as vice chair of the steering committee for the NIH-sponsored AASK Trial, on which he also chaired the design subcommittee, and was principal investigator for the CWRU Clinical Center. This trial in 1,100 patients evaluated the best treatment to prevent one of the most common causes of kidney failure in the black community.
In addition, Dr. Wright served as chair the executive committee and vice chair of the steering committee for the Anithypertensive and Lipid-Lowering to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT). This NIH-sponsored seven-year trial has recruited 42,448 participants, including more than 15,100 African American at 623 sites in the US, Canada, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Recently, Dr. Wright was selected to serve as principal investigator of one of seven clinical centers to participate in the NIDDK sponsored Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) Study. Other NIH sponsored projects include the evaluation of the genetic determinants of salt sensitivity in African-American hypertensives.