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William P. Castelli, MD

Born in New York, Dr. William Castelli holds a BS in zoology from Yale College and a Doctor of Medicine, Surgery and Obstetrics from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

He completed his internship in 1959 at King County Hospital Center associated with the Downstate Medical School of New York as well as a residency in medicine at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Boston. This led to a fellowship in rheumatology under Dr. Ellis Desner in conjunction with a group of physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital and a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. David Rutstein at the Department of Preventive Medicine at Harvard Medical School. This work continued after he joined the Framingham Heart Study in 1965.

In 1979, Dr. Castelli became the third director of the Framingham Heart Study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Begun in 1948, the Framingham Heart Study continues today to provide important findings, not only in cardiovascular medicine, but also into the causes of other common diseases afflicting mankind, including dementia, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, cancer, pulmonary disease, hearing and eye disorders. Framingham now includes four generations of participants, with investigators having published more than 1,000 scientific reports.

Dr. Castelli's associations with three medical schools in the area have led to his teaching epidemiology and prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease for 34 years at Harvard Medical School, 22 years at Boston University School of Medicine and 15 years at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He currently serves as medical director of a new wellness program at the Metro West Medical Center in Framingham, Mass., a center which specializes in the aggressive management of cardiovascular disease risk factors.