IU GERIATRICS electronic news for September 2003

The IU Geriatrics Program and the IU Center for Aging Research invite readers to visit the Annals of Internal Medicine web site to review the special supplement to the September 2, 2003 issue. Titled "Determinants of Successful Aging: Developing an Integrated Research Agenda for the 21st Century," the supplement is a compendium of findings presented at the 8th Biennial Regenstrief Conference. Conference co-chairs and supplement co-editors are Chris Callahan, MD, and Colleen A. McHorney, PhD.

The IU Geriatrics Program hosted Visiting Professor Rosanne M. Leipzig, MD, PhD, on August 12-13. Dr. Leipzig is Associate Professor, Departments of Geriatrics and Adult Development, Medicine and Health Policy; Vice-Chair for Education in the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development; and Program Director of the Geriatric Fellowship at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City. While at IU, she visited Senior Care at Wishard clinical venues and consulted with IU Geriatrics Program leadership, including Drs. Steve Counsell, Glenda Westmoreland, and Amna Buttar. Dr. Leipzig presented “That Was the Year That Was,” an evidence-based review of the year’s geriatrics literature, at IU Dept of Medicine grand rounds and at St. Vincent Hospital’s noon conference.

The Acute Care for Elders “ACE” Unit at Wishard was host to the ACE team from Methodist Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska, during an August 7 site visit. Visitors from the Methodist team included ACE Medical Director Dr. Rebecca Reilly, the unit care manager, physical therapist and team nurse. They toured the Wishard unit, observed our ACE team meeting, and met with their Wishard counterparts to discuss the units’ programs and challenges. Among the participants from Wishard and the IU Geriatrics Program were our ACE Unit Director Amna Buttar, MD, Steve Counsell, MD, Youcef Sennour, MD, Kathy Frank, RN, MSN, DNSc, and Karen Bowers, RN, MSN.

AWARDS

Congratulations to the talented team of 25 Indiana University and IU Geriatrics Program faculty and staff members who are collaborating to create the "Geriatrics Education Network of Indiana (GENI): A Statewide Dissemination of Geriatrics Training." GENI is one of 10 projects funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation in 2003 and will strengthen the geriatrics training of medical students, residents and practicing university and community-based physicians.

The team includes Principal Investigator Glenda R. Westmoreland, MD, MPH, and Co-Principal Investigators Steven R. Counsell, MD, Debra Litzelman, MD, Stephen Bogdewic, PhD, and Richard Frankel, PhD. Co-investigators from the Geriatrics Program are Robin Beck, MD, Amna Buttar, MD, MS, Christopher Callahan, MD, Jeffrey Darnell, MD, Greg Gramelspacher, MD, and David Wilcox, MD. Kathy Frank, RN, MSN, DNSc, is the program manager.

Usha Subramanian, MD, is co-PI on two one-year pilot project awards from the VA Health Services Research & Development Service. The Roudebush VA Medical Center is one of the VISN 11 sites that will participate in “Opportunities and barriers to telehealth” and “Assessing perceptions of end-of life care in advanced heart failure.” PI is Faith Hopp, PhD, Ann Arbor VA Center for Practice Management and Outcomes Research.

Teresa Damush, PhD, and Dan Clark, PhD, are consultants on “Modeling Urban Greenway Trail Use,” a proposal recently funded through the Active Living Policy and Environmental Studies program supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation®. The program was created to stimulate and support research that will identify environmental factors and policies that influence physical activity. The local project proposes to measure traffic on urban multiuse greenway trails, to identify and measure physical characteristics of trails that correlate with use, and use this information to develop models of trail traffic that will identify factors that policy makers can manipulate to increase trail use, physical activity, and health. The PI is Greg Lindsey, Duey-Murphy Professor and Director of SPEA’s Center for Urban Policy and the Environment.

ANNALS SUPPLEMENT PUBLICATIONS

Callahan CM, McHorney CA. Successful aging and the humility of perspective. Ann Intern Med 2003;139(5 Pt 2):389-91.

McHorney CA. Ten recommendations for advancing patient-centered outcomes measurement for older persons. Ann Intern Med 2003:139(5 Pt 2):403-9.

Murray MD, Callahan CM. Improving medication use for older adults: An integrated research agenda. Ann Intern Med 2003;139(5 Pt 2)425-9.

Weiner M, Callahan CM, Tierney WT, Overhage JM, Mamlin B, Dexter PR, McDonald CJ. Using information technology to improve the health care of older adults. Ann Intern Med 2003:139(5 Pt 2):430-6.

PUBLICATIONS

Weiner M, Stump TE, Callahan CM, Lewis JN, McDonald CJ. A practical method of linking data from Medicare claims and a comprehensive electronic medical records system. Int J Med Inf. 2003 Aug;71(1):57-69.

Boustani M, Watson L, Fultz B, Perkins AJ, Druckenbrod R. Acceptance of dementia screening in continuous care retirement communities: a mailed survey. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2003;18:780-6.

Clark DO, Stump TE, Damush TM. Outcomes of an exercise program for older women recruited through primary care. J Aging Health. 2003 Aug;15(3):567-85.

Russell KM, Champion VL, Perkins SM. Development of cultural belief scales for mammography screening. Oncol Nurs Forum. 2003 Jul-Aug;30(4):633-40.

Jolly EE, Bjarnason NH, Neven P, Plouffe L Jr, Johnston CC Jr, Watts SD, et al. Prevention of osteoporosis and uterine effects in postmenopausal women taking raloxifene for 5 years. Menopause. 2003 Jul-Aug;10(4):337-44.

PRESENTATIONS

Philip Fastenau, PhD, presented “Neuropsychological approaches to the prediction of Alzheimer's disease: Themes and Future Research” in a symposium discussion presented at the August 2003 Convention of the American Psychological Association in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Frederick Unverzagt, PhD, presented "Incidence of Cognitive Impairment No Dementia in Elderly African Americans" at the International Psychogeriatric Association's Eleventh International Congress held in Chicago, August 17-22, 2003. Local co-authors of the platform presentation are Gao S, Lane K, Musick B, Hui S, Hall KS, Hendrie HC.

Mary Guerriero Austrom, PhD, presented the poster "Implementation of an Integrated Approach to the Treatment of Alzheimer Disease in Primary Care" at the International Psychogeriaric Association’s Eleventh International Congress in Chicago. Abstract co-authors are Damush T, Boustani M, Callahan CM, Hendrie HC. International Psychogeriatrics 2003; 15(2):244-5.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

As members of the American Statistical Association, Wanzhu Tu, PhD, and Siu Hui, PhD, attended the JSM, Joint Statistical Meetings, in San Francisco, August 3-7, 2003. With over 4000 attendees, it is the largest gathering of statisticians held in North America and is a joint meeting of the American Statistical Association, the International Biometric Society, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the Statistical Society of Canada.

Glenda Westmoreland, MD, MPH, participated as a group facilitator in the IU School of Medicine’s Faculty Enrichment and Educational Development (FEED) Series workshop, “Doctors, Patients and the Four Habits of Clinical Communication,” held September 10 and sponsored by the Department of Medicine. The series conducts quarterly offerings on key topics to provide an opportunity for the department faculty to improve their teaching skills in a collegial and fun environment.

At the invitation of Health Care Excel, Jackie Sullivan, RN, MSN, GNP, presented two teleconferences on "Principles of Wound Healing and Treatment Options" for nursing homes in Kentucky and for home health agencies and nursing homes in Indiana. This summer she also presented three one-hour lectures on "Pressure Ulcers and the Geriatric Patient" that were videotaped and are being distributed throughout Indiana and Kentucky as part of the Nursing Home Quality Initiative sponsored by Health Care Excel.

Amna Buttar, MD, created the lecture, “Hormonal replacement therapy for postmenopausal females: to give or not to give?” which has been accepted as a Supercourse for the Global Health Network sponsored by the by University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. The Supercourse is shared worldwide on the Internet and has 10,300 faculty, mainly from academia from 151 countries, who created a library of more than 1400 lectures that enable faculty and students in developing countries to have access to current scientific information.

As consultant to The John A. Hartford Foundation, Steve Counsell, MD, provided an evaluation of the "Home Hospital National Demonstration" at the final two sites, Buffalo General Foundation, Buffalo, New York, and Portland VA Medical Center, Portland, Oregon. Based on a model developed at Johns Hopkins, the Home Hospital program is designed to provide acute care at home for selected older persons with conditions which would normally lead to inpatient hospital admission. The "Project at Home" goals are to provide acute home care that is clinically comparable, less costly, and more satisfying to patients and caregivers than care provided in the hospital.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Join us at the next Aging Research Work in Progress September 23, 8:00-9:00am when Christopher Callahan, MD, presents "Longitudinal Study of the Progression of Mild Cognitive Impairment." WIP meets at the Roudebush VA Health Services Research & Development Service in D6005.

The October 1 Geriatrics Medicine Conference features Angela Carbone, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She will present "Exercise and Strategies to Get People to Exercise" in Wishard T2008 A&B from 7:30-8:30am.