Center that focuses on popular health changes its name, makes move A simpler name is intended to heighten visibility

By SUSAN IPAKTCHIAN

The organization long known as the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention has a new name and a new address, but its mission remains the same: to reduce the public’s risk of chronic disease.

The center, now called the Stanford Prevention Research Center, and its 127 staff members are in the process of moving from two buildings on Welch Road into the Hoover Pavilion near the intersection of Quarry Road and El Camino Real. When the move is completed in mid-October, the center will occupy a total of 26,755 square feet on four of the building’s five floors.

"This will be the first time that we’ll all be together in one building," said center director Stephen Fortmann, MD, the C.F. Rehnborg Professor of Disease Prevention.

The center was formed in 1984 to conduct multidisciplinary research into the control and prevention of such disorders as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Much of the center’s research has focused on nutrition, exercise, tobacco use, stress and the social and economic factors that affect health. In addition, the center operates the Health Improvement Program for Stanford employees and provides a variety of health promotion materials for individuals and groups.

Fortmann said the center’s staff felt a simpler name would heighten the organization’s visibility and would be in line with the names of similar centers at other universities. "People struggled with our old name," he said.

The name change was timed to coincide with the move to Hoover Pavilion. The move was necessitated by plans to relocate some pediatric clinics from inside Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital to the building at 730 Welch Road, which had housed part of the center since its founding.

Fortmann said one of the advantages of the move is that the center’s research facilities will be enhanced, with more room for the equipment needed for exercise studies as well as additional rooms for interviewing and examining patients. The cost of renovating Hoover for the center’s needs came to roughly $8 million, which was paid by Packard Children’s Hospital, he said.

The new mailing address for the center is 211 Quarry Road, Room N-229. The campus mail code for the center has changed to 5705. All of the center’s phone and fax numbers remain the same.

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