Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC)

Minneapolis GRECC

• Implementation strategies to increase geriatric-attuned care and care delivery in ambulatory and hospital practice.
• Sociotechnical interventions to leverage electronic health record features to enhance diagnostic quality in older adults.
• Mechanisms of brain diseases of aging, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
• Metabolism of aging and effects on cognition, physical activity and obesity.
• Assessment measures for dementia and programs for care of dementia patients.
• Prevention and treatment strategies for Veterans with cognitive challenges.
• Osteoporosis epidemiology/fracture prediction.

• Leveraging natural processing and machine learning tools to identify prodromal cognitive and physical declines which influence driving performance of older drivers.
• Cognition in Healthcare Assessment, Research, and Training (CHART) Lab: a National Center of Patient Safety PSCI (Patient Safety Center of Inquiry) focused on designing and testing strategies for highly effective examination of the electronic health record (EHR), including a focus on diagnostic safety in older adults.
• Reducing the post weight-loss energy expenditure gap with orexin agonists.
• Development and testing of novel digital, virtual, and real-world tools for assessment of cognition and function in older adults, including for diagnosis, tracking meaningful change and outcome assessment.
• Identification of genetic and environmental risk factors for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)/Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (ADRD) to increase the understanding of AD/ADRD disease mechanisms in older adults.
• Development and testing of novel synthetic and/or natural pharmacologic agents for prevention and treatment of ADRD and to increase healthspan (period of life spent in good health) in older adults.
• Development and evaluation of the efficacy and safety of nonpharmacologic interventions (e.g., neuromodulation, music therapy) for treatment of older adults with cognitive impairment and dementia.
• Development and evaluation of the impact of technologies on enhancing the mobility, functional independence, and social participation in older Veterans.

• Inter-professional training in clinical care of Veterans with dementia.
• Advanced Fellowship in Geriatrics, interprofessional post-graduate.
• Direction of neurology residency rotation focused on neurocognitive disorders.
• Direction of VISN-wide continuing education webinars, with a focus on the age-friendly health system initiative.
• Educational collaboration with University of Minnesota Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program and state professional organizations.
• Geriatrics rotation for geriatrics psychiatry residents, internal medicine and pharmacy residents.
• Mentoring Hennepin County Medical Center geriatric fellows, Doctorate of Nursing Practice students, medical students, neurology residents, psychiatry residents and internal residents from University of Minnesota.
• Interprofessional geriatrics education for NP residents, pharmacy residents, and internal medicine residents.

• Development and testing of a prototype power-assisted walker to improve Veterans community mobility.
• Expanded post-hospitalization follow-up with caregivers of Veterans with dementia aimed to prevent rehospitalization and reduce need for nursing home care.
• Care Partner Information Improvement Project (CPI-IP) applying a human factors approach to improve the current state of caregiver identification, documentation, and retrieval.
• Dementia services redesign effort to align and integrate clinical services for dementia from initial concern through end-of-life care: Phase 1, environmental scan and trajectory mapping.

• Performance of Fracture Risk Assessment Tools by Race and Ethnicity: A Systematic Review for the ASBMR Task Force on Clinical Algorithms for Fracture Risk. J Bone Miner Res. Publication Link
• Association of covert brain infarcts and white matter hyperintensities with risk of hip fracture in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study. Osteoporos Int. Publication Link
• Obesogens and Obesity: State-of-the-Science and Future Directions Summary from a Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptors Strategies Workshop. Am J Clin Nutr. Publication Link
• Effect of a dementia friends information session on health professional students' attitudes and knowledge related to dementia. Gerontol Geriatr Educ. 
• Effects of Nurse Staffing on Resident Outcomes in Nursing Homes: A Systematic Review. J AM Med Dir Assoc. Gerontol Geriatri Educ. Publication Link
• Updates on mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. Mol Neurodegener.
• A plasma protein-based risk score to predict hip fractures. Nat Aging.
• Caregiver recruitment strategies for interventions designed to optimize transitions from hospital to home: lessons from a randomized trial. Trials.
• Age-related differences in macromolecular resonances observed in ultra-short-TE STEAM MR spectra at 7T. Magn Reson Med.
• A narrative review of music therapy for neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease and rationale for protocolized music teletherapy. Front Med (Lausanne).

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