Volume 5, Issue 1
September 19, 2008

In This Issue

1. Hartford Trustees Award New Grants (September 2008)
2. IOM Sponsors Symposium on Promoting Team Care
3. Caregiving State of the Science Findings Released
4. 2008 Beeson Scholars Named
5. Newest T. Franklin Williams Scholars Announced
6. Eric Coleman Testifies Before U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging
7. Marketplace Interviews David Reuben
8. Upcoming Hartford Program Funding Deadlines
9. Communications Tips: New Aging Blog from The New York Times

1. Hartford Trustees Award New Grants

1. In September 2008, the trustees of the John A. Hartford Foundation approved the following grants:   

Centers of Excellence (CoEs) in Geriatric Medicine and Training Renewal Grants
To increase the number of physician faculty in geriatric medicine, the Foundation awarded renewal grants for five Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Training (CoEs). The Centers are located at Cornell University, Indiana University, Emory University/University of Alabama at Birmingham (comprising a joint Southeast CoE), and the University of Washington. This funding will support the training of at least 67 advanced fellows and junior faculty members to prepare them for independent careers in aging research and teaching. These awardees are part of the network of 27 Hartford Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Training across the country. Since 1997, the John A. Hartford Foundation has awarded over $45 million to the Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Training initiative.

For more information about the Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine, please visit: www.jhartfound.org/ar2005html/index.html. A new website created to share information on how CoEs are addressing critical areas in geriatric academic career development is at www.geriatricsrecruitment.org.

Cornell University, New York, NY
M. Carrington Reid, MD, PhD
Grant amount: $750,000 over five years 

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Jan Busby-Whitehead, MD
Grant amount: $750,000 over five years

University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Itamar B. Abrass, MD
Grant amount: $750,000 over five years

Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN
Steven R. Counsell, MD
Grant amount: $450,000 over three years 

Southeast Center of Excellence, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Theodore M. Johnson, MD, MPH
Grant amount: $375,000 over three years 

University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL
Richard M. Allman, MD
Grant amount: $375,000 over three years 

Building the Capacity to Disseminate the Care Transitions Intervention on a National Scale
The Foundation has made a grant to the University of Colorado to promote at least 45 adoptions of the Care Transitions intervention by health care organizations (hospitals, health plans, or others). The Care Transitions model is a proven, effective method for building self-management skills of older patients and their families to ensure their needs are met during the transition from hospital to home, resulting in lower hospital readmission rates and lower medical costs. Older adults make up a disproportionate share of hospitalized patients, and their transfer to home represents a highly vulnerable time where errors can compromise their safety. The Care Transitions model, developed with prior funding from The John A. Hartford Foundation through its Geriatric Interdisciplinary Teams in Practice initiative, is a low-cost, proven intervention that uses a “Transition Coach” to give patients and their families the skills they need to successfully manage transitions and reduce the likelihood of hospital readmission.

For more information on the Care Transitions model, please visit: http://www.caretransitions.org/policy.asp. For more information on the Geriatric Interdisciplinary Teams in Practice initiative, please see the Foundation’s 2007 annual report at http://www.jhartfound.org/ar2007html/index.html.

University of Colorado, Denver, CO
Eric A. Coleman, MD, MPH
Grant amount: $1,156,698 over three years

The Geriatric CHAMP Program as a Framework for Geriatric Home Care Excellence
The Foundation has awarded a grant to the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY) to improve the health of older adults receiving home health care services by expanding the Curricula for Homecare Advances in Management and Practice (CHAMP) program. This effort will enhance the geriatric competence of frontline nurse managers and clinicians across 600 leading home care agencies around the country. This work builds on a prior Hartford Foundation grant to the VNSNY to work with national leaders in establishing the first national guidelines on geriatric home care best practice, and on a grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies to the VNSNY to establish the CHAMP program, the first national training initiative to improve the quality of geriatric home health care services.

For more information about VNSNY’s CHAMP program, please visit
http://champ-program.org/HTML/about_champ.html.

Visiting Nurse Service of New York, New York, NY
Penny Hollander Feldman, PhD
Grant amount: $1,066,176 over three years

Communications and Dissemination Initiative Expansion Renewal
The John A. Hartford Foundation Communications and Dissemination Initiative Expansion will continue to raise awareness of and increase support for education and service innovations in geriatrics and gerontology by preparing grantees and staff to successfully communicate the importance and characteristics of strong training and research programs for improved quality of care for older adults. The Foundation will continue to work with Strategic Communications and Planning, a socially responsible consulting firm specializing in work with nonprofit organizations, foundations, and government initiatives. The Foundation’s Communications and Dissemination Initiative has been funded since 1999 to help grantees and staff successfully promote and communicate their work to diverse audiences. For more information on Strategic Communications and Planning, please visit www.aboutscp.com.

Strategic Communications and Planning, Wayne, PA
John Beilenson
Grant amount: $875,740 over three years

Ensuring the Advanced Practice Registered Nursing Workforce is Prepared to Care for Older Adults
The John A. Hartford Foundation has awarded a grant to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) to develop national aging-focused competency requirements and curricular recommendations for the new model of master’s-level nursing education that will combine two traditionally distinct areas of study in adult care and gerontology. Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) earn master’s degrees and provide specialized care in a variety of settings, and the combined Adult/Gerontology APRN education model will ensure that an increased number of these nurses are prepared to care for the country’s rapidly growing older adult population. This work builds on a prior Foundation grant to the AACN to increase the number of advanced practice nurses specializing in gerontology.

For more information about the AACN’s work in geriatric nursing, please visit: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Education/Hartford/index.htm.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Washington, DC
Geraldine “Polly” Bednash, PhD

2. IOM Sponsors Symposium on Promoting Team Care

The Institute of Medicine is hosting a one-day symposium, ”The Health Care Workforce for Older Americans: Promoting Team Care,” on October 7, 2008, at the Center for Healthy Communities in Los Angeles. The symposium will highlight innovative models of interdisciplinary team care, including Hartford-funded initiatives such as Guided Care, IMPACT, and Virtual Integrated Practice, as well as key implementation challenges and efforts to promote further adoption. For more information or to register, go to: www.iom.edu/CMS/56808.aspx.

3. Caregiving State of the Science Findings Released

4. 2008 Beeson Scholars Named

The Paul B. Beeson Career Development Awards in Aging Research Program has named 12 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 2008 Beeson scholars and the titles of their research are:

Sarwat Chaudhry, MD, Yale University School of Medicine
Comorbidity and Functional Outcomes in Older Patients with Heart Failure

Stephanie Cosentino, MD, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Awareness of Deficit in Alzheimer’s Disease

XinQi Dong, MD, Rush University Medical Center
Consequences of Self-Neglect in a Biracial Population of Older Adults

Susan Hardy, MD, University of Pittsburgh
Functional Recovery in Post-acute Care

Paul Rosenberg, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
PET Imaging of Microglial Activation in Alzheimer’s Disease

Joseph Ross, MD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Impact of Publicly Reporting Hospital Outcome Measures for Older Adults

Steven Russell, MD, Harvard University/Joslin Diabetes Center
Adipocyte Insulin Signaling in Metabolism and Aging

Arthur Simen, MD, Yale University School of Medicine
Epigenetic Factors in Vulnerability to Aging and Stress

Farzaneh Sorond, MD, Harvard Medical School/Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Hypoxia-Inducible Transcription Factor 1 (HIF-1) in Vascular Aging

Michael Steinman, MD, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
Guideline Adherence in Elders with Multiple Comorbidities

Douglas White, MD, University of California, San Francisco
A Randomized Trial to Improve Surrogate Decision-Making for Critically Ill Elders

Heather Whitson, MD, Duke University School of Medicine
Developing Interventions to Improve Function in Seniors with Comorbidity Conditions

5. Newest T. Franklin Williams Scholars Announced

The seventh 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 co-sponsored by 12 partnering internal medicine specialty societies. This class of recipients joins 52 scholars previously chosen to integrate geriatrics into the specialties of internal medicine. 

The T. Franklin Williams Scholars and the titles of their projects are:

Steven G. Coca, DO, Yale University School of Medicine
Effect of Acute Kidney Injury on Long-Term Kidney Function in Elderly Patients
 
Elizabeth Haney, MD, Oregon Health and Science University
Bone Turnover and Bone Loss Among Older Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor Users

Jeffrey C. Horowitz, MD, University of Michigan Medical School
Myofibroblast Fate Determination by Extracellular Matrix Evaluations

Kim M. Huffman, MD, PhD, Duke University School of Medicine
Mechanism of Insulin Resistance in Older Individuals with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Joachim H. Ix, MD, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine
Fetuin-A, Adiposity, and Incident Diabetes in Older Persons

Shirley F. Jones, MD, Texas A&M Health Science Center
Understanding the Relationship between Sleep, Circadian Rhythm, and Intensive Care Unit Delirium

Heidi D. Klepin, MD, Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Functional and Cognitive Assessment in Older Adults with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

Amie L. Meditz, MD, University of Colorado School of Medicine
Influence of Sex Steroids and Aging on HIV-1Chemokine Coreceptor Expression in Women

Lisa M. Nanovic, DO, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Effect of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors on Aortic Stiffness in Elderly Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

Richard J. Saad, MD, University of Michigan Medical School
The Differences in Physiologic Mechanisms Underlying Chronic Constipation in Elderly Versus Younger Adults with Constipation

Carla R. Scanzello, MD, PhD, Rush Medical College of Rush University
Age-Associated Matrix Alteration and Inflammation in Idiopathic Knee Osteoarthritis

George C. Wang, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

6. Eric Coleman Testifies Before U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

In July 2008, Dr. Eric Coleman testified before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. Titled “Person-Centered Models for Assuring Quality and Safety During Transitions Across Care Settings,” Dr. Coleman’s testimony highlights the findings of the Foundation-funded Care Transitions program and the barriers to broader implementation. Dr. Coleman and the Care Transitions program were also mentioned on the front page of “Science Times” of the New York Times on September 16, 2008. For more information on the Care Transitions program, visit: www.caretransitions.org. To read Dr. Coleman’s Senate testimony, go to:  http://aging.senate.gov/events/hr199ec.pdf.

7. Marketplace Interviews David Reuben

Dr. David Reuben, director of the UCLA Multicampus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology and director of the Hartford Foundation's Centers of Excellence for Geriatric Medicine at UCLA, was interviewed in August by the national radio program Marketplace. In the piece, about the need for more geriatricians in the U.S., Reuben discusses the geriatrician’s role and likens it to that of a quarterback or head coach. The segment can be heard or read at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/08/05/aging_population/

8. Upcoming Hartford Program Funding Deadlines

November 3, 2008
Paul B. Beeson Career Development Awards in Aging Program
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AG-09-012.html

November 7, 2008
Geriatrics Education for Specialty Residents curricula enrichment grants http://www.americangeriatrics.org/specialists/gsr/

December 5, 2008
Hartford Geriatrics Health Outcomes Scholars
http://www.healthinaging.org/hartford/submission.asp

December 9, 2008
Dennis W. Jahnigen Career Development Awards Scholars Program
http://www.americangeriatrics.org/specialists/jahnigen/apply/

January 7, 2009
T. Franklin Williams Scholars Award
http://www.healthinaging.org/franklin_Williams/

January 14, 2009
BAGNC Predoctoral Scholarship
http://www.geriatricnursing.org/applications/predoc-scholarship.asp

Claire M. Fagin Fellowship
http://www.geriatricnursing.org/applications/cmf-fellowship.asp

February  2, 2009 
Hartford Faculty Scholars in Geriatric Social Work
www.gswi.org/programs/hfs.html

Hartford Doctoral Fellows in Geriatric Social Work
www.gswi.org/programs/hdf.html

May 1, 2009
Hartford Pre-Dissertation Awards in Geriatric Social Work
www.gswi.org/programs/predissertation.html

9. Communications Tips: New Aging Blog from the New York Times

Hartford grantees might be interested in the New York Times–sponsored blog "The New Old Age" (http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/). The blog is written by reporter Jane Gross and focuses on the challenges faced by adults over 80 (the fastest growing segment of the population) and their adult children, who are the primary caregivers and decision-makers for their aging parents.  While written from a consumer perspective, the blog has covered topics quite relevant to your work, and is likely to continue doing so. We encourage you to bookmark this blog or tag it to be sent to your mailbox. You should also consider posting responses as relevant to your current Hartford-funded project, or just to share your opinion and expertise. If you have ideas for topics, you can contact Ms. Gross at: newoldage@nytimes.com.

[BandwidthOnline Logo] For help crafting your message—whether for a blog posting, a PowerPoint presentation, a scientific poster, or a brochure—go to the Hartford Foundation’s communications web site, www.bandwidthonline.org. The site offers a wealth of information to help you with a variety of communications activities. Check it out!

Important Note: You should have received an email from Bandwidthonline.org with your password for the site. If you did not, please contact Chris Gherst at cgherst@aboutscp.com.

Please Note

Christopher A. Langston, PhD, coordinates the Report, on behalf of the Foundation staff, with John Beilenson of Strategic Communications & Planning. If you have items you would like us to mention, please contact Chris at christopher.langston@jhartfound.org. We look forward to hearing from you.

Please look for our next issue on or around December 15, 2008.

If you have received this message in error or would like to be taken off this newsletter mailing list, please contact jbeilenson@aboutscp.com.

Copyright 2008. The John A. Hartford Foundation.