Geriatrics Center of
Excellence News
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We are pleased to announce that Eric Coleman, M.D.,
M.P.H., Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, has
received the 1999 Hartford/ Jahnigen Center of Excellence Assistant
Professor Stipend for his project entitled, Health Outcomes in
Medicare Managed Care: The Role of Care Coordination in Reducing
Emergency Department Utilization.
His award is provided in conjunction with a 1999 Pfizer/American
Geriatrics Society Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research on Health
Outcomes in Geriatrics. The COE stipend provides Dr. Coleman
additional research time and also funds a research assistant’s
time.
Dr. Eric Coleman
has been awarded the 1999
Assistant Professor Stipend
Dr. Coleman will investigate the association between
care coordination and utilization of the emergency department in older
patients, and he will design an intervention aimed at reducing the use
of the emergency department in this population.
Jim Martau, M.D., Fellow in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, has
been awarded an Academic Geriatrics Fellowship from the Hartford
Foundation and the American Federation for Aging Research. Through his
project entitled, Evaluation of Nursing Home Quality Since the
Implementation of the Resident Assessment Instrument, Dr. Martau
plans to investigate the evidence for improvement in multiple areas of
nursing home quality since the implementation of OBRA’87. Drs.
Andrew Kramer and Eric Coleman will serve as mentors for this project.
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The 1999 American Geriatrics
Society/American Federation for Aging Research Annual Scientific
Meeting will be held May 19-23, 1999 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Several faculty members affiliated with the Hartford/Jahnigen Center
of Excellence will present papers and/or posters at this year’s
meeting.
Six UCD faculty members
will be presenting at the
AGS/AFAR Annual Meeting.
Among the presenters are:
v Marie Johnson, M.D., presenting a poster
entitled Medical and Surgical Patients Receiving Post-Acute
Rehabilitation: Characteristics and Outcomes and a paper entitled
Comfort Care Recommendations are Based on Age and Gender Rather
than Prognosis;
v Eric Coleman, M.D., M.P.H., presenting a
paper entitled Reducing Emergency Visits in Medicare Managed Care:
The Effect of Group Visits and an invited presentation at a
Hartford/AFAR-sponsored seminar entitled Launching a Career in
Academic Geriatrics;
v Nora Morgenstern, M.D., presenting a
poster entitled Involuntary Disenrollment from Medicare Managed
Care at an Academic Medical Center;
v Eric Hester, B.S., presenting a poster
entitled The VA and Medicare HMO’s: Complimentary or
Redundant?;
v Evelyn Hutt, M.D., presenting a poster
entitled Acutely Ill Nursing Home Residents: Predictors of
Hospitalization; and
v Jean Kutner, M.D., M.S.P.H., presenting
a poster entitled Elderly Cancer Patients: Treatment Decisions.
Dr. Nora Morgenstern and Danielle Holthaus will also present a poster
at the AGS/AFAR Centers of Excellence Program Directors Poster Session
on Saturday, May 22, 1999.
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Focus: Pharmacology
Aging Program
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Under the direction of Paula Bickford, Ph.D., the
Department of Pharmacology’s Aging Program conducts several
aging-related studies that explore such issues as motor skills and
motor learning, cognition, and neurodegenerative disease.
Motor Skills and Motor Learning
One of the common consequences of aging is a decline in motoric
function and the ability to learn new motor skills. These declines in
motoric function and motor learning are associated with increased
risks of falling and mortality in older individuals. Thus, a goal of
the Pharmacology Aging Program is to understand the neurobiological
basis of the decline in motor skills and motor skill learning that
occurs with the aging process. Understanding the mechanisms that
underlie aging-related alterations in motor skill learning is an
important focus of their work.
Program conducts several
aging-related studies,
exploring such issues as
motor skills, cognition, and
neurodegenerative disease.
Researchers in the Aging Program have demonstrated that
caloric restriction and nitrone spin trapping agents such as PBN will
reduce the age-related deficits in B-noradrenergic function and
motor skill learning. Currently, they are interested in examining
nutritional sources of antioxidants, and have found that a diet
supplemented with foods high in antioxidants, such as blueberries or
spinach, can prevent many of the age-related declines in cerebellar
B-adrenergic receptor function and motor learning in rats.
Continued on Page 3....
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