IU GERIATRICS electronic news for February 2004

The IU Geriatrics Program and the IU Center for Aging Research call your attention to the March 25th summit, "Caring for Residents with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias in Assisted Living." In addition to the keynote speech by Malaz Boustani, MD, MPH, the event will feature sessions that address topics such as behaviors and therapies, positive communication, creating a healing environment, and developing and maintaining supportive services that work.

The summit will be held at the Marten House Hotel and Conference Center in Indianapolis and will be presented by Regenstrief Institute, the Alzheimer's Association of Greater Indiana, the Central Indiana Geriatric Nurses Association, and the Indiana Assisted Living Federation of America (IALFA). Contact the latter at 317-388-8725 about registration.

IU Geriatrics has expanded recently to include activities at Clarian Health. Youcef Sennour, MD, previous Wishard ACE Unit Medical Director, is starting a new ACE program at Methodist Hospital with Gene Lammers, MD, MPH, (volunteer geriatrics faculty based at Methodist) and with the help of Steve Counsell, MD. In addition, Chris Callahan, MD, Malaz Boustani, MD, MPH, and Doug Miller, MD, are now seeing outpatient consultations at the Methodist Center for Geriatric Medicine, Methodist Medical Tower #322.

Congratulations to Wishard's Palliative Care Program, a finalist for the Indianapolis Business Journal's Health Care Hero Awards in the category of "Advancements in Health Care." Program providers include Greg Gramelspacher, MD, Lois Lane, RN, ANP, Linda Kirchhoff, MSW, LSW, Jo Groves, RN, MS, and spiritual advisor Karen Estle, MAPCC. The award honors companies, individuals, and organizations in the health care field who epitomize the spirit embodied in the word "hero." The goals of the awards program are to recognize excellence, promote innovation, encourage emulation of successful programs, educate the general public, contribute to the enhancement of the value and quality of health care and, ultimately, give recognition to those who are deserving.

PUBLICATIONS

Econs MJ, Koller DL, Hui SL, Fishburn T, Conneally PM, Johnston CC Jr, Peacock M, Foroud TM. Confirmation of linkage to chromosome 1q for peak vertebral bone mineral density in premenopausal white women. Am J Hum Genet. 2004 Feb;74(2):223-8. Epub 2004 Jan 16.

Li L, Huang J, Sun S, Shen J, Unverzagt FW, Gao S, Hendrie HH, Hall K, Hui SL. Selecting pre-screening items for early intervention trials of dementia-a case study. Stat Med. 2004 Jan 30;23(2):271-83.

Tariot PN, Farlow MR, Grossberg GT, Graham SM, McDonald S, Gergel I; Memantine Study Group. Memantine treatment in patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer disease already receiving donepezil: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2004 Jan 21;291(3):317-24.

Edwards KR, Hershey L, Wray L, Bednarczyk EM, Lichter D, Farlow M, Johnson S. Efficacy and safety of galantamine in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies: a 12-week interim analysis. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2004;17 Suppl 1:40-8.

PRESENTATIONS

Malaz Boustani, MD, MPH, presented a poster, "Managing Delirium in Hospitalized Elderly," at the 17th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) held February 21-24, 2004, in Baltimore, Maryland. Co-authors were A. Shah, David Heck, MD, Martin Farlow, MD, Amna Buttar, MD, MS, Glenda Westmoreland, MD, MPH, and Caroline Carney Doebbeling, MD, MSc.

Chris Callahan, MD, presented "Dementia Care in the Community" at the AAGP Annual Meeting in Baltimore on February 23rd. Chris provided an overview and early results from the local PREVENT study, "Providing Resources Early to Vulnerable Elders Needing Treatment for memory loss."

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Hugh Hendrie, MB, ChB, DSc, joined colleagues Malaz Boustani, MD, MPH, Chris Callahan, MD, and other research, academic, clinical and administrative leaders in the field of geriatric psychiatry at the 17th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry held February 21-24, 2004, in Baltimore, Maryland. These 3 IUCAR colleagues were especially pleased with the attendance at their sessions and the interest generated by Malaz's poster and Chris' presentation.

Teresa Damush, PhD, was featured in the March 2004 Reader's Digest Medical Update column in an article entitled, "Mind Over Back Pain." The magazine interviewed Teresa who as lead author described findings that were published in "The Long-term Effects of a Self-Management Program for Inner-city Primary Care Patients with Acute Low Back Pain" in the November 24, 2003 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Chris Callahan, MD, reviewed grant applications as a member of the Advisory Board to the American Geriatric Society Foundation for Health in Aging, Pfizer/AGS Junior Faculty Scholars Program in New York City, NY on February 25th, 2004. The Junior Faculty Scholars Program is a career development program aimed at junior level physician-scientist geriatrics faculty at U.S. medical (allopathic or osteopathic) institutions. Two recipients will receive a $130,000 grant over a two-year period to perform studies in outcomes research addressing clinical strategies, innovative outcomes measures and quality of life.

As Co-Chair for the Public Policy Advisory Group of the American Geriatrics Society, Steve Counsell, MD attended a special meeting March 1, 2004 held by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Washington, DC. The group reviewed implementation plans for "Section 721 - Voluntary Chronic Care Improvement Under Traditional Fee-For-Service," a component of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003. Many of the models of care that geriatrics faculty have implemented and are studying here at the IU Medical Center may be applicable under this initiative.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

On March 17th Ali Sayed, MD, geriatric medicine fellow, will present the IU Geriatrics Conference in Wishard T2008 A&B from 7:30-8:30am. The topic is to be announced.

The March 31st IU Geriatrics Conference features Fred Unverzagt, PhD, associate professor, Department of Psychiatry, and director of neuropsychology, Center for Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders. He will present "Mild Cognitive Impairment and Neuropsychiatric Testing," in Wishard T2008 A&B from 7:30-8:30am.

Join us at the next Aging Research Work in Progress, April 6, 8:00-9:00am, to critique posters your colleagues will display at annual meetings of national organizations such as the Society of General Internal Medicine and the American Geriatrics Society. Please note a change of location--for this special session only--to the Regenstrief Institute 5th floor classroom.