The University of Rochester and the Rochester Community have joined efforts to establish an Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC). The Rochester Area Pepper Center (RAPC) will draw on the substantial resources in biomedical research including experimental therapeutics and biostatistics, health care innovations and research, and clinical care programs in geriatrics and long term care, to initiate intervention studies to improve the ability of older Americans to remain independent. The model of the Center is based on the observation that clinical dysfunction leading to dependence occurs along a continuum that the therapeutic strategies targeted at various loci from primary to tertiary prevention may reduce functional decline. The projects include two intervention studies (Acute Respiratory Tract Infection in the Elderly, W. Hall; Urinary Incontinence: Treatment Algorithm, T. Wells), and two interventions development studies (Muscle Hypertrophy and Protein Synthesis: Effect of Age (S. Welle) and Carbamazepine Therapy of Agitation in Dementia (P. Tariot). All projects address important diseases/dysfunctions which lead to functional dependence. The projects will utilize three cores (Geriatric Assessment (R. Panzer), Health Services Research (J. Zimmer), Biostatistics (M. Tanner) in order to integrate clinical data and determine the success of their planned program. The RAPC has developed a major Research Development Core to ensure that recruitment and training of future clinical scholars are successful. The Rochester community is an ideal environment for the initiation of information dissemination projects, and demonstration projects. In summary, the RAPC will become the leading organizational structure in coalescing a number of programs in aging, programs which will bring great strength to the Center, and crystallizing a multidisciplinary mission of geriatric programs in Rochester.
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