Geriatrics

Geriatrics

The overarching mission of Yale Geriatrics is to improve the health and health care of all older adults through research, education, and clinical care. Older adults differ widely in health conditions, priorities, and life contexts. A fundamental principle underlying Yale Geriatrics’ research, educational, and clinical activities is that understanding this heterogeneity should drive all research, training, and care involving older adults. Yale Geriatrics aims to ensure that older adults, regardless of where they reside, receive health care informed by gerontologic discoveries and provided by health professionals trained in geriatric principles.

Honoring its mission, the Section of Geriatrics continues to be a powerhouse of excellence committed to research and mentorship.

Small Section, Big Impact

Geriatrics is home to remarkable programs and initiatives that underscore its profound influence on the national level. Yale’s Section of Geriatrics research remains at the forefront of innovation, transforming the present practice of geriatric medicine and health care.

Continuing its historic influence, the Yale Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center has secured its sixth consecutive renewal of funding from the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The center is one of only two nationwide programs to receive continuous NIA support since it was first funded in 1992, marking more than 30 years of excellence in geriatrics and aging research. The latest round of funding, more than $6.5 million over five years, substantiates the center’s innovative work. Focused on investigating complex geriatric conditions with multiple causes or outcomes, the center aims to contribute to scientific knowledge, advance clinical decision-making science, and nurture new investigators dedicated to aging research.

Under the leadership of Mary Tinetti, MD, Patient Priorities Care (PPC) has been awarded a renewal grant of nearly $3 million from the John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF). The grant supports expanding this evidence-based health care decision-making approach into nationwide health systems. PPC seeks to improve care for older adults with multiple chronic conditions by centering care around patient defined health priorities and specific outcome goals. PPC is aligned with age-friendly health care systems by addressing the Matters Most ‘M’ of the 4Ms (mobility, mentation, medication, and what matters most).

A new translational geroscience initiative, spearheaded by Thomas Gill, MD; Nancy J. Brown, MD; and Vishwa Deep Dixit, DVM, PhD, is shifting the focus from specific diseases to the effects of aging on various ailments. This initiative aims to delineate the basic mechanisms of healthy and accelerated aging, aiming to develop therapeutic agents that can delay or prevent chronic diseases in older adults. Translational geroscience extends across the Yale campus to bring together diverse physician investigators and scientists in such areas that are relevant to aging as infectious diseases, pulmonary medicine, rheumatology, cardiology, ophthalmology, hematology, endocrinology, and other sections and departments across Yale School of Medicine.

Advancing Future Leaders

The section proudly supports its early stage investigators and junior faculty members. Their achievements exemplify the dedication and influential work of the next generation of geriatrics leaders.

Santiago Clocchiatti-Tuozzo, MD, a postdoctoral fellow, has been honored with two awards from the American Heart Association for excellence in neurology and cerebrovascular disease research: The Bernard J. Tyson Career Development Award and the Stroke Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Groups Travel Grant. His research investigates the association between suboptimal sleep duration and clinically silent brain injury in middle-aged adults.

Brienne Miner, MD, MHS, has been named a Tideswell Emerging Leader in Aging to develop new programs and systematic change related to diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Section of Geriatrics and beyond. Through her research, Miner aims to design interventions for sleep deficiency in older persons.

Emily Mroz, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow, has been honored with the Edie Stark-Shirley Scott Early Achievement Award from the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) for her distinguished activity in scholarship, service, research, clinical practice, and social action. The award is presented annually to a woman in the initial years of a career in thanatology—the study of death, dying, and bereavement.

Jennifer Ouellet, MD, has received the Outstanding Junior Clinician Educator of the Year Award from the American Geriatrics Society, recognizing her significant impact on didactic teaching, mentoring, career advice, and the development of educational programs within geriatrics. Ouellet instructs internal medicine residents through an ambulatory curriculum she developed based on the Age-Friendly Health System 4Ms Framework (Mentation, Medications, Mobility, and What Matters Most), anchored by the AGS Geriatrics 5Ms, which includes multi-complexity as the fifth M.