Spring 2002

The University of Colorado Denver

Volume 5, Number 1

The second annual Hartford/Jahnigen Center of Excellence Geriatrics Research Forum was held on January 24, 2002 on the UCD campus. More than 100 students, faculty, and other community members participated in this year's Forum, which featured two guest presenters from Brown Medical School: Richard Besdine, MD, FACP, and Terrie Wetle, PhD.

The Hartford/Jahnigen Center of Excellence congratulates Kristen Rice, a first-year medical student at UCD who recently received a Medical Student Summer Research Stipend from the John A. Hartford Foundation and the American Federation for Aging Research. With her stipend, Kristen plans to study differences in quality of hospice care in nursing homes depending on whether the hospice services are offered by the nursing home or by an external vendor.

The Hartford/Jahnigen COE
congratulates Kristen Rice,
who recently received a
Hartford/AFAR Medical Student
Summer Research Stipend.

Cari Levy, MD, Fellow in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, has been awarded an Academic Geriatrics Fellowship from the John A. Hartford Foundation and the American Federation for Aging Research. With this award, Dr. Levy will compare nursing home residents who die in the nursing home with those who die in the hospital, and will identify patient and facility characteristics predictive of death in the hospital.

The 2002 American Geriatrics Society Annual Scientific Meeting will be held May 8-12, 2002 in Washington, D.C. Several faculty members and fellows

affiliated with the Hartford/Jahnigen Center of Excellence will present papers and/or posters at this year's meeting.

Cari Levy, MD, Fellow in the
Division of Geriatric Medicine,
has received a Hartford/AFAR
Academic Geriatrics Fellowship

The presenters include:

v Eric Coleman, MD, MPH, presenting a poster entitled An Interdisciplinary, Patient-Centered Approach to Improving Transitions Across Sites of Geriatric Care and a paper entitled Development and Testing of a Measure Designed to Assess the Quality of Care Transitions;

v Stacy Fischer, MD, presenting posters entitled Predictors of One Year Mortality in a Hospitalized Veteran Population and A Descriptive Study of End-of-Life Care at the Denver Veterans' Administration Center;

v Wendee Gozansky, MD, MPH, presenting a poster entitled Weight Loss & HPA Axis Activity in Postmenopausal Women;

v Shad Grubbs, MD, presenting a poster entitled Grief Response Following Bereavement;

v Kathy Jankowski, PhD, presenting a poster entitled DHEAS and Physical Functional Performance in the Elderly;

v Heidi Klingbeil, MD, making oral and poster presentations entitled Geriatric Education for the Surgical and Related Medical Specialties;

v Cari Levy, MD, presenting a poster entitled Hospital vs. Nursing Home: A Comparison of Nursing Home Residents Who Die in the Hospital Rather Than the Nursing Home; and

v Jeffrey Wallace, MD, MPH, presenting at a symposium entitled Herbal Supplements - What We Know and What We Need to Know.

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The Center for Health Services Research (CHSR) at UCD undertakes health care research to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of health care provided particularly to those in need of long-term care. CHSR was established in 1976 in the Office of Chancellor; it joined the newly established Division of Health Care Policy and Research early this year. Directed by Peter Shaughnessy, PhD, and Robert Schlenker, PhD, CHSR's research emphasis is on studying alternative delivery modalities, provider settings, quality improvement approaches, regulatory methods, and payment options in long-term care.

CHSR undertakes health care
research to enhance the
efficiency and effectiveness
of health care provided to
those in need of long-term care.

The approximately 60 multidisciplinary faculty and staff at CHSR conduct statistical, clinical, economic, psychological, and health services research in assessing and measuring quality of care, outcomes, case mix, cost, and utilization. In addition to traditional long-term care, research has been conducted in selected areas of primary care, managed care, hospital and rehabilitation care, and scientific methods in health services research.

CHSR's program emphasizes an unusual degree of historic integration. Studies have been and continue to be designed to build on one another and are closely linked in terms of both content and methods. This affords the opportunity to progressively contribute to health policy evolution and advances in research methods over the course of time.

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