The town of Framingham, Mass., should get a "global standing ovation" for what it has contributed to our knowledge of heart disease, says healthcare consultant Brian McGowan at The Scientist's opinion column. The 1948 Framingham Heart Study, the follow-up 1971 FHS Offspring study, and the 2002 third-generation study are observational, and all data is collected in a huge database that's shared among researchers and physicians.