• Advancing relationship-centered care.
  • A manuscript, “The Influence of Information Technology on Patient-Physician Relationships”, is currently in press.
• Linking data sources.
  • In the 21st Century Project, funded by the Indiana 21st Century Research & Technology Fund, we are creating an advanced information infrastructure for medical research in Indiana. This infrastructure will support rich connections among research-relevant computer systems to provide better (but privacy protecting) access to clinical data, and new access to external databases, existing tissue resources, and patient recruitment registries. We will develop technology and agreements that will expand the availability and utility of de-identified clinical information and specimens for research.
• Improving specialty consultations
• A study is underway to assess barriers to implementing recommendations of inpatient geriatrics consulting teams. This will lead to new gero-informatics interventions to improve collaborative care and team communications.
• Dr. Weiner is working with IU Medical Group, to evaluate formally a new technology-based quality-improvement initiative that is designed to improve rates at which requests for outpatient specialty consultation lead to scheduled appointments.
• Improving self-management of disease.
  • The Center for Aging Research was designated an Edward R. Roybal Center for Research on Applied Gerontology in 2004. With IU-Roybal pilot program funding for advancing research in self-management of disease, Dr. Weiner conducted a pilot study in which older patients used facsimile machines at home, to receive education, conduct self-assessments, and initiate self-management of osteoarthritis.
• Remote monitoring
• Dr. Weiner worked with Peter Woodbridge of the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in a study of an unobtrusive home health monitoring system that uses multiple motion sensors placed inside a home.
• Clinical decision support
  • In 2005, IUCAR's Malaz Boustani, MD, MPH, was awarded a prestigious NIH Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award in Aging Research to develop a clinical decision support system and evaluate its ability to improve physicians' prescribing for hospitalized older adults with cognitive impairment.

• Kevin Terrell, DO, MPH, won a Dennis W. Jahnigen Career Development Scholars Award to develop and study a decision-support system to increase safety of prescribing to older adults in an emergency department. This targets several drugs that are often hazardous for older patients. GOCAR is facilitating the implementation of the intervention.
• Dr. Terrell is also working on a system to improve physicians' prescribing of drugs to patients with renal insufficiency presenting in an emergency department. GOCAR is facilitating the implementation of the intervention.
  
  
  

Dr. Kevin Terrell                                        Photo by Tim Stump