Chelsea Perfect, MD, MPH, a dedicated researcher and geriatrician at Duke, has been named a recipient of the prestigious George Maddox Aspiring Investigator Award for the 2024-2025 academic year. The award, given by the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, recognizes early-career investigators who have demonstrated a strong commitment to aging research and possess outstanding academic potential.
Dr. Perfect’s journey into geriatrics was inspired by a shift in her medical school interests. Originally planning to pursue women’s health, she found her calling in a lecture about aging and geriatrics. “Everything they talked about was exactly what I wanted to do,” Dr. Perfect shared. “It was the perfect balance of medical complexity and listening to patients. I’ve always been drawn to patient-centered care, and geriatrics allows me to focus on what matters most to patients as they age.”
Her passion for geriatrics has only deepened since medical school, where she began to see the importance of listening to patients and understanding their goals for care. This, combined with her growing interest in research, solidified her focus on aging populations and their unique health needs.
“I love my interactions with older patients,” she said. “In medical school, I explored public health research in England, and that’s where I became interested in how system-wide changes can impact individuals on the ground. My research now blends my love for geriatrics with a desire to make meaningful changes in health care systems.”
Dr. Heather Whitson, director of the Duke Aging Center and Co-director of the Duke/UNC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, spoke highly of Dr. Perfect's contributions and potential. "We’ve been fortunate that the Aging Center has been part of Chelsea’s professional home for years. She was a CARiNG-StARR scholar as a resident, then a clinical geriatrics fellow, and now a postdoc in the Aging Center T32 program,” said Dr. Whitson. “She is so well-suited for a research career in geriatrics because she is smart and curious and not intimidated by the complexity of a problem. She combines that intellect with a caring soul and a knack for identifying practical solutions that prioritize the things that matter to patients."
Recently, Dr. Perfect’s research has focused on dementia, particularly the relationships between dementia patients and their caregivers. Through her work, she has come to appreciate the complexities of dementia care, which often involves more than just treating the patient. “Dementia affects the entire family unit,” she explained. “It’s about supporting the patient, but also understanding the impact on caregivers and how we can help them navigate this challenging process.”
In addition to her clinical work in geriatrics, Dr. Perfect is currently involved in a research project funded by the National Institutes of Health through a T32 grant. Her current work focuses on evaluating programs that support people living with dementia and their caregivers. One such project involves studying a newly created dementia care program at Duke, as well as a long-established program within the Veterans Affairs (VA) system.
“Last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provided funding for organizations to develop programs that support people living with dementia and their care partners,” Dr. Perfect said. “The VA has had a dementia care program for over ten years, and Duke has just launched its own. I’m examining how these programs operate and what can be done to maintain and sustain them.”
Her research aims to improve how dementia care programs are implemented and to find ways to scale them for broader use. “It’s important not just to create these programs but to think about how we maintain and scale them to reach more people,” she said. “We need to ensure that programs supporting patients and caregivers are effective and adaptable as needs change.”
When asked how her work aligns with the Department of Medicine’s mission of moving medicine forward, Dr. Perfect emphasized the importance of her research in addressing the ongoing challenges of dementia care. “We have new therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, but the reality is that dementia still affects a significant portion of the population,” she said. “My hope is that our research will help develop programs that support people living with dementia and their care partners and ultimately help scale these programs to benefit even more individuals.”
Dr. Perfect will be honored at the Aging Center’s Annual Showcase on December 6, 2024, where she will join fellow awardees in celebrating their contributions to the field of aging.