IU GERIATRICS e-news for December 2005

Speaking of gero-informatics, check the e-news in January 2006 to learn how IU Geriatrics and the IU Center for Aging Research are studying and applying medical informatics to care for older adults.

GRANTS
Usha Subramanian, MD, MS, has been awarded funds from the IU General Clinical Research Center to support "Messaging and Monitoring Devices as Self Management Support to Improve Clinical Outcomes among Patients with Chronic Heart Failure." The research will test the hypothesis that, compared to usual care, patients given in-home access to a wireless messaging and monitoring system will improve their self care of chronic heart failure, reduce health-risk behaviors, and use medical services more efficiently. The project is funded for one year beginning January of 2006.

Susan J. Pressler, DNS, RN is site PI and a co-investigator on an R01titled “BMI, Nutrition, Inflammation and Heart Failure Outcomes” funded by the National Institute for Nursing Research. The research is examining the relationships among body fat content, nutritional status, inflammation, and event-free survival in 300 patients with chronic heart failure.

Susan J. Pressler, DNS, RN is co-principal investigator of “Multidisciplinary Care and Quality of Life in Heart Failure Management,” a Methodist Hospital Cardiovascular Research Showalter Grant. The one-year case-control study is comparing self-management behaviors among heart failure patients enrolled in a multidisciplinary heart failure clinic compared to patients with heart failure who receive usual care.

PUBLICATIONS
Bennett SJ, Sauve MJ, Shaw RM. A conceptual model of cognitive deficits in chronic heart failure. J Nurs Scholarsh. 2005;37(3):222-8.

Bennett SJ, Lane KA, Welch J, Perkins SM, Brater DC, Murray MD. Medication and dietary compliance beliefs in heart failure. West J Nurs Res. 2005 Dec;27(8):977-93.

Ghose SS, Williams LS, Swindle RW. Depression and other mental health diagnoses after stroke increase inpatient and outpatient medical utilization three years poststroke. Med Care. 2005 Dec;43(12):1259-64.

Andresen EM, Miller DK. The Future (History) of Socioeconomic Measurement and Implications for Improving Health Outcomes Among African Americans. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2005 Oct;60(10):1345-50.

Katon WJ, Schoenbaum M, Fan MY, Callahan CM, Williams J Jr, Hunkeler E, Harpole L, Zhou XH, Langston C, Unutzer J; for the IMPACT investigators. Cost-effectiveness of Improving Primary Care Treatment of Late-Life Depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005 Dec;62(12):1313-20.

Sherwood P, Given BA, Given CW, Champion VL, Doorenbos AZ, Azzouz F, Kozachik S, Wagler-Ziner K, Monahan PO. A cognitive behavioral intervention for symptom management in patients with advanced cancer. Oncol Nurs Forum. 2005 Nov 3;32(6):1190-8.

Gerontological Society of America PRESENTATIONS
Doug Miller, MD, Malaz Boustani, MD, MPH, and Bridget Fultz, MA, attended t he 58 th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America held November 18-22, 2005 at the Marriott Orlando World Center in Orlando, Florida. The meeting theme was “The Interdisciplinary Mandate.”

Douglas K. Miller, MD, was the primary author of a poster and a paper presented at GSA. The poster was titled “Importance and Reliability of Subclinical Status in the African American Health Project.” The paper was “Correlates Of Change in the Short Physical Performance Battery Over 36 Months in the African American Health Project.” The presentations reported data from PI Miller's R01,“ Physical Frailty in Urban African Americans.”

Doug Miller was also primary author of the symposium “Observed and Self-Reported Neighborhood Scales: Improved Measurement and Associations with Health Status in 3 Studies.” Data were drawn from three community-based projects that included the African American Health (AAH) study in St. Louis, Missouri. Symposium presentations from AAH included “ Measurement Issues in Two Observer Neighborhood Rating Systems: Results from the African American Health Project (AAH)” and “Neighborhood Conditions and Risk of Incident Lower-Body Functional Limitations among Middle-Aged African Americans.”

Bridget Fultz, MA, Program Manager of Research Operations for the IU Center for Aging Research represented IU-CAR and presented an update on IU-Roybal activities at the meeting of Edward R. Roybal Centers for Research on Applied Gerontology held November 19, 2005 during the GSA meeting. IU-CAR was designated a Roybal Center in 2004 by the National Institute on Aging. IU-Roybal is directed by Dan Clark, PhD, and Chris Callahan, MD.

PRESENTATIONS
Susan J. Pressler, DNS, RN, presented “How much do they understand? Recognizing and coping with cognitive changes in heart failure,” an invited presentation at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions held November 13, 2005 in Dallas, Texas.
    Dr. Pressler also presented a poster, co-authored with Neil Oldridge, PhD and others titled “Cognitive deficits in ischemic cardiomyopathy patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators” at the AHA Scientific Sessions in Dallas.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Teresa Damush, PhD, Implementation Research Coordinator for the VA Stroke QUERI, has successfully coordinated the submission of a service directed concept paper, “The Development and Feasibility Test of Implementing SQUIDSS: A Stroke Quality Improvement Decision Support System.” The concept paper has been approved by the VA HSR&D. Read more about what's next for SQUIDSS in the October 2005 Stroke QUERI newsletter.

Steve Counsell, MD and Chris Callahan, MD, along with Kim Singleton, COO of IU Medical Group - Primary Care, attended the informational conference for prospective applicants for the Medicare Health Care Quality Demonstration Program hosted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in Washington, DC on December 2, 2005.  The session included a presentation on the Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE) by Regenstrief Scientist and IHIE President & CEO Marc Overhage, MD, PhD.