Detecting and Mending Disparities with End-of-Life Care
It is no small matter that terminally ill African-Americans patients enroll in hospice less often than white patients. Lower participation contributes to health disparities between the races.
African-American patients are less likely than white patients to have their pain adequately diagnosed and treated, for one. They less often obtain medicine to treat pain and are less satisfied with communication and overall care from health providers.
When geriatrician Kimberly Johnson, MD, MHS, first observed these differences as a resident in the 1990s, she understood immediately that physicians needed to address them. So she did.
Johnson receives NIH award to fund Center of Excellence on Minority Health and Health Disparities
Kimberly Johnson, MD, associate professor of medicine (Geriatrics) and senior fellow in the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, has received one of 12 NIH awards to fund a specialized research center designed to conduct multidisciplinary research, research training and community engagement activities focused on improving minority health and reducing health disparities.
Funding opp: Duke Claude D. Pepper Center announces 3 funding opportunities
The Duke Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center has announced three opportunities for funding beginning July 1, 2018. Letters of interest are due Nov. 1, 2017.
Kimberly Johnson to get $5.8 million PCORI contract
Kimberly Johnson, MD, associate professor of medicine (Geriatrics), will receive funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study the barriers and facilitators of advance-care planning for different racial groups.
POSH program takes team-based approach for care of older patients who need surgery
Duke Perioperative Optimization of Senior Health, POSH, is a team-based approach in which surgeons, geriatricians, advanced practice providers from anesthesia, and patients work together to head off potential problems before surgery.
“Surgeons are seeing older and older patients,” says Shelley McDonald, DO, PhD, assistant professor of medicine (Geriatrics). “We’ve learned that by working together, these patients can get through surgery with fewer complications.”
Uncovering connections between elderly patient’s multiple chronic conditions
Geriatrician Heather Whitson studies connections between multiple chronic conditions that many elderly people live with at once. Her research exploring links between vision loss and cognitive decline has altered practices in low-vision clinics. Her studies probing possible biological links between age-related disorders of eye and brain formerly considered unrelated, hold broad clinical promise.
Q&A with Cathleen Colon-Emeric: Mentorship and furthering the need for research in geriatrics
Cahtleen Colon-Emeric, MD, associate professor of medicine (Geriatrics), and Senior Fellow in Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, received a Duke Health Scholars Award this spring. This award is presented to faculty members who have an outstanding and established research path. Each award recipient receives substantial funding to further his or her research findings.
9 from Medicine honored at 2017 Spring Faculty Meeting
Nine Department of Medicine faculty were recognized with awards at the School of Medicine's annual Spring Faculty Meeting on May 8.
School selects additional Duke Health Scholars and Fellows
The Duke School of Medicine has selected additional faculty members for the Duke Health Scholars and Duke Health Fellows Program. Among the faculty honored are six individuals from the Department of Medicine.
White to serve as president of The Society for Post-Acute and Long-term Care Medicine
Heidi White, MD, MEd, CMD, associate professor of medicine (Geriatrics), has begun her tenure as the 2017-18 president of The Society for Post-Acute and Long-term Care Medicine (AMDA).