The applicant's goal for this career development award is to develop the multidisciplinary skills required to become a leader in aging research. His developmental plans include focused research as well as a program of curse work, tutorials, and directed readings. His research agenda is directed toward improving the quality of life of elders with acute and chronic illnesses. The project for this career development award centers on using hospitalization as an opportunity to improve the long-term quality of life of elders. The supplicant has developed a preliminary framework of needs that can be addressed in the hospital to improve the quality of life and elders. This framework forms the basis for sustained career development as well as cumulative and incremental research. The proposal focuses on depression as the initial challenge to be addressed in this incremental research agenda. Depression is an important quality of life issue in hospitalized elders because it is common, poorly understood in the context of acute illness, seldom recognized by physicians, yet treatable when it is recognized.
The aim for this research proposal are to develop a better understanding of depression in the context of acute illness and to determine the characteristics of screening tests for major depression in hospitalized elders. Following the completion of this effort, the applicant will conduct studies to develop a better understanding of other quality of life needs within the context of hospitalization and develop better methods of assessing these needs. He expects these efforts to culminate with an application for independent funding to develop an intervention program to use hospitalization as an opportunity to improve the long-term quality of life of acutely ill elders. The applicant brings to this application training in internal medicine and clinical epidemiology. His goal of developing the multidisciplinary skills required to be a leader in aging will be accomplished through a focused research project, a sponsorship team encompassing multiple disciplines, as well as tutorials and course work designed to expand the applicant's conceptual framework and methodological skills. Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) has a long-standing commitment to developing programs in gerontology research. The applicant's principal sponsor directs the research and development core of the CWRU Pepper Center and has been the PI for studies designed to improve outcomes in hospitalized elders. He will assure the applicant advanced training in clinical epidemiology and geriatrics. The applicant's multidisciplinary team of secondary sponsors will guarantee in-depth training in areas critical to the applicant's development.
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