Obituary- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
Obituary- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
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February 14, 2000
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In This Issue:
Needle Safety Conversion Completed
Black Achiever Award
Mission to Honduras
Town Meeting addresses patient satisfaction
Action teams to form
Obituary
Pike Notes
At services held on January 26, friends and colleagues paid tribute to BWH researcher Janice Pfeffer, PhD, who died on January 23 after a long illness. Pfeffer served for 25 years as a member of the hospital’s Cardiovascular Division, where her laboratory studies on improving heart function following a heart attack attracted international attention. With her husband and collaborator, BWH cardiologist Marc Pfeffer, MD, PhD, Janice Pfeffer identified a new use for the anti-hypertensive drug captopril, which has since saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of heart-attack patients. A landmark BWH-based trial that began in 1987 showed that captopril could slow enlargement of the heart’s left ventricle, which typically occurs in the wake of a heart attack and often leads to a second attack and heart failure. That trial paved the way for studies of similar drugs now used to prevent first-time heart attacks in people with coronary artery disease. The author of more than 100 publications, Janice Pfeffer served on editorial boards of prominent medical journals. Pfeffer earned her PhD at the University of Oklahoma. She was the recipient of a Distinguished Alumni Award from her alma mater, Rockford College, where a scholarship fund has been established in her name to promote a greater interest in science among women.