Spring 2001

The University of Colorado Denver

Volume 4, Number 1

We are pleased to announce that Frederick Masoudi, M.D., Assistant Professor in Cardiology and Geriatric Medicine, has received a Hartford/Jahnigen Center of Excellence Assistant Professor Stipend for his project entitled Heart Failure & Normal Systolic Function in Older Adults. This award is provided in conjunction with a K-08 Mentored Scientist Clinical Development Award from the National Institute on Aging.

The goals of Dr. Masoudi's project are to better characterize patients with heart failure and preserved left ventricular systolic function, to explore the important determinants of patient outcomes, and to provide insights into developing interventions for improving outcomes in this population.

Dr. Frederick Masoudi
has been awarded a
Hartford/Jahnigen
Center on Excellence
Assistant Professor Stipend.

Eric Coleman, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and recipient of a Hartford/Jahnigen Center of Excellence stipend, has received a Paul Beeson Faculty Development Award for a project entitled Reducing Care Fragmentation across Sites of Geriatric Care. With this award, Dr. Coleman plans to test the feasibility of a care fragmentation intervention designed to ensure that older patients' healthcare needs are met across sites of geriatric care.

The 2001 American Geriatrics Society/American Federation for Aging Research Annual Scientific Meeting will be held May 9-13 in Chicago, Illinois.

Several students, fellows, and faculty members affiliated with the Hartford/Jahnigen Center of Excellence will present papers and/or posters at this year's meeting.

Six UCD students, fellows,
and faculty will present
papers or posters at this year's
AGS/AFAR Annual Meeting.

The presenters include:

l Eric Coleman, M.D., M.P.H., presenting a poster entitled The Association between Care Coordination and Emergency Department Use in Older Managed Care Enrollees as well as two invited presentations entitled Care Transitions: Models, Measures and Future Directions and Funding Your Work: Update for Fellows and Junior Faculty;

l Wendee Gozansky, M.D., M.P.H., presenting posters entitled Vitamin B12 Levels and Risk of Venous Thromboembolism and Urinary Free Cortisol, Abdominal Obesity, and Depressive Symptoms in Postmenopausal Women;

l Evelyn Hutt, M.D., presenting a poster entitled Association between Quality of Care and Survival in Nursing Home Acquired Pneumonia;

l Tracy Lippard, M.D., and Lisa Price, M.D., presenting a poster entitled Elderly Hispanics with Depressive Symptoms Are Less Likely to Receive Treatment than Elderly Non-Hispanic Whites;

l Edna Ma, Hartford/AFAR Summer Research Student Scholar, and Eric Coleman, M.D., M.P.H., presenting a poster entitled An Analysis of Post-hospital Care Transitions in Older Patients; and

l Stacy Meyer, M.D., presenting a poster entitled Palliative Care Experience

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Under the direction of Douglas Seals, Ph.D., the Center for Physical Activity, Disease Prevention and Aging at the University of Colorado at Boulder was established in 1996 to examine the role of physical activity in disease prevention and the promotion of successful aging.

Part of the University's Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology, the Center is comprised of faculty with diverse backgrounds in areas such as biochemistry, biomechanics, clinical medicine, endocrinology, epidemiology, gerontology, immunology, physiology, and psychology.

The Center for Physical
Activity, Disease Prevention
and Aging examines the
role of physical activity
in disease prevention and
promotion of successful aging.

Within the Center, several studies explore the effects of aging on neuromuscular and motor control. Much of the research in this area has shown that one consequence of aging is a decline in an individual's ability to perform simple motor tasks. Such motor tasks include exerting a constant force (isometric contraction, in which muscle shortening or lengthening is prevented) and lifting light loads (anisometric contraction, in which muscle shortening or lengthening takes place).

Research indicates that older adults exhibit greater fluctuation in force than younger adults when performing both isometric and anisometric contractions. This fluctuation in force is often referred to as a decrease in the steadiness of the contraction.

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