Volume 6, Issue 1
September 23, 2009
In This Issue
- Hartford Trustees Award New Grants (September 2009)
- David Dorr Participates in White House Health Care Roundtable
- Mary Tinetti Named 2009 MacArthur Fellow
- Care Transitions Program Included in Proposed Health Reform Bill
- Health AGEnda Highlights
- 2009 Beeson Scholars Named
- 2009 T. Franklin Williams Scholars Announced
- Upcoming Hartford Program Funding Deadlines
- Communications Tip: Presentation Resources at BandwidthOnline.org
1. Hartford Trustees Award New Grants
In September 2009, the trustees of the John A. Hartford Foundation approved the following grants:
Professional Partners Supporting Family Caregiving—Phase II
Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC): Advancing the Palliative Care Field
The Foundation has granted funding for the Center to Advance Palliative Care’s third cycle of programming over the next three years. This funding will provide CAPC with the support necessary to take the palliative care field from a new subspecialty to mainstream medical practice in every hospital in order to ensure that palliative care is fully integrated into U.S. health care. Through the program’s current core activities—which include technical assistance, leadership development and education, the National Palliative Care Registry, and its return on investment calculator—CAPC proposes to increase the number of hospitals with effective, high-quality, sustainable palliative care programs and demonstrate the quality and cost-effectiveness of palliative care.
Additional activities are designed to make palliative care a standard of practice in American health care. These include promoting access to quality palliative care through modifications in health policy regarding accreditation, regulation, education and training requirements, workforce and leadership development, enhanced research funding, and payment and reimbursement for palliative care clinical services. The goals of these activities are to increase support for palliative care services at government, payer, policy, and regulatory agencies and build collaboration across related organizations to maximize the impact of this new medical field. For more information about the Center, visit: www.capc.org.
Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY
Diane E. Meier, MD
Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Training National Program Office
The Foundation has approved a grant to the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) to develop and manage a new Centers of Excellence National Program Office (NPO). The new National Program Office will consolidate existing and newly proposed CoE programmatic and financial operations under one roof to deploy the Foundation’s resources with greater efficiency, retaining the best of the Foundation’s investments in the program while allowing for new program and budget flexibility. This grant will also lead to a call for proposals from existing Center of Excellence to receive funding from the NPO and a winding down of the current direct awards between the Foundation and the participating institutions.
American Federation for Aging Research, Inc., New York, NY
Odette van der Willik
Geriatrics for Specialists Initiative: Increasing Geriatrics Expertise for Surgical and Related Medical Specialties—Phase V
The American Geriatrics Society received a grant from the Foundation to expand geriatrics expertise in surgery and related medical fields through education, research, leadership development, and the institutionalization of new training requirements. As part of the grant, at least ten surgery-related disciplines will develop and implement new training requirements around geriatric competencies; a new public-private partnership will provide the majority of funding for 20 new Dennis W. Jahnigen Scholars to the National Institute on Aging; and portable models of geriatrics education for surgical residents will become widely available.
To learn more about the Geriatrics for Specialists Initiative, visit: www.americangeriatrics.org/specialists
American Geriatrics Society, Inc., New York, NY
John R. Burton, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Jeff Silverstein, MD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program and National Network
The Foundation awarded a renewal grant to The Gerontological Society of America for the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program. The funding will support 27 additional scholars and provide overall coordination of the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Initiative (GSWI). One new component of the program, a formal Networking Advisory Committee, will identify opportunities for networking, guide the development of ideas, and gather information on existing “naturally” occurring networks of program alumni. In addition, the Foundation welcomes the Veteran’s Administration (VA) as a partner in the program. The VA will fund six of the 27 scholars with a $600,000 investment. The ultimate goal of the program is to improve the health and well-being of older adults by preparing faculty for leadership in gerontology, with the ultimate goal of increasing the capacity of schools of social work to train geriatric social work practitioners.
For more information about the GSWI, visit: www.gswi.org
Gerontological Society of America, Washington, DC
Barbara Berkman, DSW
2. David Dorr Participates in White House Health Care Roundtable
David Dorr, MD, one of the developers of the Foundation-funded Care Management Plus program, participated in the August 11, 2009, White House Health Care Roundtable discussion on Advanced Models of Primary Care. Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of President Obama’s new White House Office of Health Reform, led the discussion with innovators from diverse health care organizations to rethink the organization and delivery of primary care. To read the Foundation’s blog post about the event, visit: www.jhartfound.org/blog/?p=759. Click here to view the videotaped discussion. Dr. Dorr’s segment begins at timestamp 20:43.
3. Mary Tinetti Named 2009 MacArthur Fellow
Mary Tinetti, MD, a longtime grantee of the Foundation, has received a 2009 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship recognizing her work in the area of falls prevention for older adults. The MacArthur Fellowship is often referred to colloquially as the “genius award” and provides recipients an unrestricted grant of $500,000 over five years.
As Director of the Hartford Center of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Training at the Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Tinetti has championed the effort to infuse geriatrics into medical clinical specialties. An innovative researcher, she transformed the prevailing view of falls from an inevitable consequence of aging to a preventable event with a multidimensional set of risk factors that can be identified and controlled. In the words of her MacArthur Foundation citation, Dr. Tinetti, “pioneered the study of a long-recognized but previously little-investigated public health problem in gerontology.
Dr. Tinetti is the third Hartford Foundation grantee to receive a MacArthur Fellowship in recent years. She joins Diane Meier, MD, director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, who received her fellowship in 2008, and Sarah Kagan, PhD, FAAN, RN, professor of gerontological nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and a 2003 MacArthur recipient for her work on symptom management for older cancer patients.
For more information about Dr. Tinetti’s award, go to: www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5458043/k.936A/Mary_Tinetti.htm.
4. Care Transitions Program Included in Proposed Health Reform Bill
“America's Healthy Future Act,” the health reform bill under review by the Senate Finance Committee, includes funding to pilot the wide scale implementation of a patient-centered care transition model that has successfully reduced hospital readmission rates by 35 to 50 percent. Eric A. Coleman, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, developed the Care Transitions Intervention to address the high rate of Medicare hospital readmissions. Currently, one in five patients returns to the hospital within 30 days, costing Medicare over $17 billion annually.
The Hartford Foundation has supported the development, research, and dissemination of the Care Transitions Intervention program with $3.2 million in grant funding since 2000. Care Transitions helps patients assume a more active role in ensuring that their health care needs are met and they regain their independence after hospitalization.
For more information about Care Transitions, visit: www.caretransitions.org
5. Health AGEnda Highlights
Health care reform and geriatric workforce issues are two hot topics that generate a multitude of opinions. Get the perspectives of Foundation staff by reading recent blog posts from Amy Berman (“Health Reform: If We had a Magic Wand for Primary Care”), Chris Langston (“Team or Mob?”), and Nora O’Brien (“How Will We Meet the Health Service Needs of an Aging America?”).
Take a look, join the conversation, and subscribe to the blog via RSS feed or email. You can also follow the Hartford Foundation and the blog via Facebook See you there!
6. 2009 Beeson Scholars Named
The Paul B. Beeson Career Development Awards in Aging Research Program has named eight new recipients. This highly competitive annual award is granted to physician-faculty scholars who are laying clinically relevant groundwork in many areas related to aging, including the biology of aging, age-related diseases, and health services and clinical management issues—all with the aim of enhancing the health and quality of life of older adults. Recipients receive $600,000 to $800,000 for a three- to five-year period through a collaboration between the National Institute on Aging and several foundations.
The 2009 Beeson scholars and the titles of their research are:
Cynthia M. Boyd, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Treatment Burden in Older Adults with Diabetes and Multimorbidity
Dena B. Dubal, MD, PhD, Assistant Adjunct Professor, University of California, San Francisco
Collagen VI: Novel Mechanisms and Functions in Alzheimer’s Disease
Christiane Reitz, MD, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Mapping Causative Factors in the Sortilin-related Pathway in Alzheimer’s Disease
Mara Schonberg, MD, Instructor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Benefits and Burdens of Screening Oldest-old Women: The Case of Mammography
Dorry Segev, MD, Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Access to Kidney Transplantation in Elderly Patients
Edmond Teng, MD, PhD, Clinical Instructor, University of California, Los Angeles
Assessment of Biomarkers and Behavior in a Transgenic Rat Model of AD
Heidi L. Wald, MD, MSPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Colorado, Denver
Reducing Urinary Tract Infections in the Hospitalized Older Patient
Jonathan Wanagat, MD, PhD, Acting Instructor, University of Washington
Mitochondrial Genetics in Skeletal Muscle Aging
For more information about the Beeson program, visit: www.beeson.org
7. 2009 T. Franklin Williams Scholars Announced
The eighth class of T. Franklin Williams Scholars has been announced by the Association of Specialty Professors. These scholars are recipients of two- and four-year career development awards funded by a grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies (USA), Inc., supported by the John A. Hartford Foundation and cosponsored by 12 partnering internal medicine specialty societies. This class of recipients joins 64 scholars previously chosen to integrate geriatrics into the specialties of internal medicine.
The T. Franklin Williams Scholars and the titles of their projects are:
Peter M. Abadir, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Age-Related Change in Angiotensin Receptors and its Contribution on Chronic Inflammation
Kathleen M. Akgun, MD, Yale University School of Medicine
Aging and Critical Illness in HIV Infected Patients
Alison Huang, MD, University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
The Impact of Urogenital Functioning and Well-being in Women
Danelle F. James, MD, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine
Age-Related Differences in Immunomodulatory Therapy for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Eswar Krishnan, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine
Does Frailty in Old Age Amplify Glucocorticoid Toxicity?
Rohit Loomba, MD, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine
Sex-Specific Effect of Alcohol and Obesity and Adipocytokines in Geriatric Fatty Liver Disease in a Prospective Population-Based Cohort: Rancho Bernardo Study
Sharmilee M. Nyenhuis, MD, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Identification and Impact of Age-Related Changes in Neutrophilis during an Asthma Exacerbation
Peter P. Reese, MD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Predictors of Mortality Among Older Renal Transplant Candidates and Recipients: Implications for Organ Allocation Policy in the United States
Erik B. Schelbert, MD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Risk Stratification with Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance
John M. Stafford, MD, PhD, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Hyperglycemia as a Driver of Altered High-Density Lipoprotein Metabolism after Menopause
H. Keipp Talbot, MD, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Influenza Vaccine Immunologic Correlates
To learn more about the T. Franklin Williams Scholarship program, visit: www.healthinaging.org/franklin_williams
8. Upcoming Hartford Program Funding Deadlines January 13, 2010
BAGNC Predoctoral Scholarship
www.geriatricnursing.org/applications/predoc-scholarship.asp
Claire M. Fagin Fellowship
www.geriatricnursing.org/applications/cmf-fellowship.asp
February 1, 2010
Hartford Faculty Scholars in Geriatric Social Work
www.gswi.org/programs/hfs.html
February 2, 2010
Hartford Doctoral Fellows in Geriatric Social Work
www.gswi.org/programs/hdf.html
9.Communications Tip: Presentation Resources at BandwidthOnline.org
As the busy academic year begins, we want to remind you of all the resources available on BandwidthOnline.org, the Foundation’s online communications resource. There you’ll find tips for improving your presentations—everything from scientific posters and PowerPoint slides to media interviews and delivering an “elevator” speech. Visit www.bandwidthonline.org for all this and more! |
