Volume 1, Issue 5
June 20, 2005

In This Issue

1. New Grants Awarded by Hartford Trustees (June 2005)
2. Hartford-NIA Partnership: Details Finalized for Medical Student Program
3. Eleven Scientists Named Beeson Scholars
4. Twenty-Four Hartford Nursing Scholars & Fellows Announced
5. Nine Hartford Social Work Scholars Selected
6. Geropsychiatric Nursing Conference Call For Papers
7. Communications Tip: Quality of Health Care for Medicare Beneficiaries: A Chartbook

1.The trustees of the JAHF recently approved the following major grants:

Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence
The John A. Hartford Foundation renewed its five centers of geriatric nursing excellence to continue their work in strengthening nursing care for older adults. The grants will provide support for these diverse centers to build upon and expand their multi-faceted aging programs in the areas of education, research, practice, recruitment, policy, and dissemination—all in the service of improving nursing education and the care of older adults.

Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR
Heather M. Young, PhD, RN, GNP, FAAN
Grant amount: $1,050,000 over five years

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR
Claudia Beverly, PhD, RN
Grant amount: $1,050,000 over five years

University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Margaret Wallhagen, RN, PhD
Grant amount: $1,050,000 over five years

University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Kathleen Buckwalter, PhD, RN
Grant amount: $1,050,000 over five years

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Neville Strumpf, PhD, RN, C, FAAN
Grant amount: $1,050,000 over five years

Enhancing Gerontology Content in Baccalaureate Nursing Education Programs
Most nursing faculty do not yet have the knowledge or skill to effectively “gerontologize” their courses. To address that need, the Foundation has made a grant to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to support the development of a national initiative to prepare up to 700 tenure-track baccalaureate faculty to lead the transformation of their schools’ curricula and also to teach and mentor colleagues and students in geriatric nursing. Six multi-day regional trainings will prepare faculty to advocate for geriatric content, train other faculty members, and oversee curriculum revisions at their home institutions.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Washington, DC
Geraldine Bednash, PhD, RN, FAAN
Grant amount: $2,595,890 over four years

Hartford Center of Excellence Network Resource Center
The Foundation’s 24 centers of excellence (CoEs) possess considerable capacity to recruit and develop physician leaders in geriatrics. As there is currently no formal mechanism for collecting and disseminating this expertise, the Foundation approved a grant to the American Federation for Aging Research to develop and operate a Hartford CoE Network Resource Center. The center will facilitate the continued development of academic geriatric medicine and its practitioners by identifying and disseminating best practices in geriatrics recruitment and career development. Three sets of activities will be supported by this grant: 1) a best practices survey of CoE model programs, 2) three topical papers on current issues in academic geriatrics and 3) a communications strategy to increase information exchange among the CoEs.

American Federation for Aging Research, Inc., New York, NY
Odette van der Willik
Grant amount: $473,742 over four years

Translating Research Into Practice: Transitional Care for Elders
While the nation’s health care system is desperately in need of innovations to improve the care of the increasing number of older Americans, bringing new models of care from research to routine practice can be difficult and time consuming. The Foundation approved a grant that will support the cost of implementing and testing the feasibility of a transitional care model within the Kaiser health care system. This nursing-based, post-hospitalization model assigns a nurse to provide intensive case management and coordination of services as the patient returns home. Variations of the model will be tested at three sites within the Kaiser system to investigate the best use of advanced practice and registered nurse staff.

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Mary D. Naylor, PhD, RN
Grant amount: $472,839 over 30 months

Dissemination of Hartford/AAMC Geriatric Education Models: Leveraging Further Change and Preparing for the Future
Since 2000, the Foundation has worked with the Association of American Medical Colleges to increase the quality and amount of geriatrics material in the four years of undergraduate medical education. With this grant, the Association will continue to encourage the spread of geriatrics education and to make available the products developed under prior awards. The project’s activities will include hosting a consensus conference on geriatrics education in medical schools and transferring Hartford-funded educational tools to a high-traffic geriatrics education Web site created by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation (www.POGOe.org).

Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington, DC
M. Brownell Anderson
Grant amount: $325,100 over two years

Increasing Education and Research Capacity to Improve Care of Older Americans Grant Augmentation
In order to increase geriatric training and research for general internists, the Foundation augmented a grant to the Society of General Internal Medicine. This continuation of the project will include interviews, surveys, conference calls, and meetings. The key product will be an action plan that builds upon accomplishments to date. Work will also continue on the geriatrics content of the training and certification examinations both during and after residency training.

Society of General Internal Medicine, Washington, DC
C. Seth Landefeld, MD
Grant amount: $77,766 over six months

2. Hartford-NIA Partnership: Details Finalized for Medical Student Program

The details of the Medical Student Summer Research Training in Aging Program, a National Institute of Aging (NIA)-John A. Hartford Foundation partnership, conducted in collaboration with the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), have been announced.

Seven training sites have been chosen for the program, with T35 grants worth $3 million to train up to 18 students per year for five years. The schools are: Harvard Medical School; Johns Hopkins University; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, San Diego; University of Hawaii; University of Michigan; and the University of Pittsburgh.

Since 1994, the program has awarded scholarships to more than 800 students from 98 medical schools interested in aging research and geriatrics, providing them with a focused eight- to twelve-week research, instruction, and clinical experience at designated geriatrics training centers throughout the country. The objectives of the program are to introduce medical students early in their careers to an enriching experience in geriatric medicine and research to encourage them to enter and stay in the field.

For more information or to apply to this grant program, students should refer to the AFAR web site at www.afar.org/medstu.html.

3. Eleven Scientists Named Beeson Scholars

The Paul B. Beeson Career Development Awards in Aging Research Program has named eleven 2005-2008 recipients. This highly competitive award is granted to up to 12 physician-faculty scholars each year 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, with the aim of enhancing the health and quality of life of older adults.

Through the additional support of the program's newest partner, the National Institute on Aging (NIA), recipients receive $600,000 to $800,000 for a three- to five-year period.

The 2005-2008 Beeson Scholars are:

Liana Apostolova, MD, Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
"Structural MRI Outcome Predictors in MCI"

Malaz Boustani, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Indiana University
"Enhancing Care for Hospitalized Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment"

Jennifer Brach, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh
"Gait Variability: Epidemiology, Assessment & Management"

Arleen Brown, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles "Neighborhoods and the Management of Chronic Conditions"

Cynthia Carlsson, MD, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin
"Effect of Statins on Pathobiology of Alzheimer's Disease"

Daniel Goldstein, MD, Assistant Professor, Yale University
"Strategies to Enhance Immunity in Aging"

Wendolyn Gozansky, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Health Science Center
"Cortisol Metabolism & Central Adiposity After Menopause"

Leanne Groban, MD, Associate Professor, Wake Forest University
"Growth, Angiotensin II, and Cardiac Aging"

Arti Hurria, MD, Assistant Member I, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
"Can Geriatric Assessment Predict Oncology Outcomes?"

Pearl Seo, MD, MPH, Duke University
"PPARgamma: Biomarker for Breast Cancer in Older Women"

Dellara Terry, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Boston University
"Centenarian Offspring and Vascular Disease Resistance"

4. Twenty-Four Hartford Nursing Scholars & Fellows Announced

The Foundation's Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity (BAGNC) Scholar Awards Program recently selected 24 nurse scholars and fellows. Scholars will receive up to $105,000 each to support their studies. Fellows are awarded up to $125,000 to support research in the field of geriatric nursing. The 2005 scholars and fellow join 82 BAGNC colleagues selected since the program began in 2000.

The 2005-2007 Pre-Doctoral Scholars are:

Jennifer Bellot, RN, MHSA
University of Pennsylvania

Nancy Benton, RN, MN, CS
Oregon Health & Science University

Linda Beuscher, MSN, RN, GNP, BC
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Colleen Casey, RN, BS, BA
Oregon Health & Science University

Mary Louise Fleming, MSN, RN
University of California, San Francisco

Jennifer Merrilees, RN, MS
University of California, San Francisco

Sadie Mitchell, RN, MSN
University of Pennsylvania

Ingrid Pretzer-Aboff, MA, RN
University of Maryland

Kristen Swafford, RN, BS, BA
Oregon Health & Science University

Sarah Szanton, RN, MSN, CRNP
Johns Hopkins University

Michelle Umbarger, MSN, RN
University of Iowa

Amy Vogelsmeier, MSN, RN, BC, BCNS
University of Missouri-Columbia, Sinclair

Ronald Walent, MS, RN, CNS, BC
University of California, San Francisco

The 2005-2007 Post-Doctoral Fellows are:

Michele Balas, RN, MSN, CCRN, CRNP, BC
University of Pennsylvania

Margaret Crighton, MSN, RN
University of Pittsburgh

Tracie Culp-Harrison, PhD, RN, FNP
University of Texas at Austin

Mary Dyck, PhD, RN, BC, LNHA
University of Missouri-Columbia, Sinclair

Patricia Holkup, PhD, RN
Montana State University-Missoula Campus

Wen-Wen Li, RN,MS, PhD
University of California, San Francisco

Sherry Pomeroy, PhD, RN
University of Buffalo,
University of Maryland

Cynthia Russell, RN, PhD
University of Missouri-Columbia, Sinclair

Anna Song Beeber, MSN, RN, APRN-BC
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Sunghee Tak, PhD, RN
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Christine Wanich Bradway, PhD, RN
University of Pennsylvania

5. Nine Hartford Social Work Scholars Selected

The John A. Hartford Foundation and the Gerontological Society of America selected nine 2005 geriatric social work faculty members for the Hartford Faculty Scholars Program. The program will provide the scholars with opportunities for professional development and $100,000 in funding over the next two years.

Now in its fifth year, the program aims to improve the well-being of older adults by increasing the number of adequately trained geriatric social workers.

The 2005 faculty scholars and their research topics are:

Karen Bullock, PhD, University of Connecticut
Preference for utilization of medical treatment among older African Americans

Joan K. Davitt, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Racial disparities in Medicare home health care

Suk-Young Kang, Arizona State University
The quality of life, in terms of physical and mental health, among Chinese elders and Korean elders in the Southwest

Stacey Kolomer, PhD, University of Georgia
A survey of older caregivers about their caregiving experiences, level of burden, and their use/misuse of prescription medication and alcohol

Lene Levy-Storms, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles
Communication issues between health care providers and patients in long-term care

Yunju Nam, PhD, Washington University, St. Louis
The effects of welfare reform on elderly non-citizens' economic well-being and health

Sandra Owens-Kane, PhD, University of Nevada
Improving caregiving among ethnically diverse elder caregivers

Nan Sook Park , University of Alabama
The linkages among assisted living residents' perceptions of the facility, social resources, and psychosocial well-being

Sara Sanders, PhD, University of Iowa
Beliefs and practices of social workers about the role of hospice care for individuals with end stage progressive dementia, and also the beliefs and practices of familial caregivers who have utilized hospice care for their care recipients with progressive dementia.

6. Geropsychiatric Nursing Conference Call For Papers

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, together with the John A. Hartford Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence at Penn and the University of Iowa School of Nursing, are presenting a one-day conference, "Geropsychiatric Nursing: State of the Future," on September 30, 2005. Commissioned white papers, discussant reports, and panel discussions will summarize and disseminate the current state of knowledge in geriatric mental health nursing science, curriculum, and clinical care. In addition, there will be a poster session to help showcase and advance successful models of geropsychiatric nursing practice, education, research, and dissemination. Abstracts are being solicited at this time for poster sessions only. For more information, go to: http://www.nursing.upenn.edu/ce/Geropsych/Callforposters.htm.

7. Communications Tip: Quality of Health Care for Medicare Beneficiaries: A Chartbook

As part of creating powerful messages to communicate research, it's essential to have the right frame and the right data to make the case and support your message. One excellent resource for such data is Quality of Health Care for Medicare Beneficiaries: A Chartbook published in May 2005 by The Commonwealth Fund. The Chartbook reflects a broad review of recently published studies and reports and presents a coherent picture of the quality of health care for elderly Medicare beneficiaries living in the community. It includes a wealth of evidence on a range of topics including immunizations in the elderly, colorectal cancer screening, falls & instability, hospital mortality, osteoporosis, diabetes, mental health care, patient safety, equity in care, and much more. To download the Chartbook, visit: http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=275195

Copyright 2004 The John A. Hartford Foundation