Geriatric Emergency Medicine

Research Goals

The Geriatric Emergency Medicine research program aims to improve health care for older adults with acute illnesses. Many factors limit older adults’ access to safe, patient-centered, efficient, high-quality, acute illness care. These factors lead to poor outcomes, including morbidity, mortality, and avoidable visits to the emergency department. Our group is working to identify these factors by developing and testing novel programs to improve the care delivered to acutely ill older adults.

Primary research areas with dedicated effort and funding include capacity building for core aging-related research, utilizing clinical informatics to identify fall risk of elderly patients and prevent future falls, and developing care transitions models for older adults, especially those with cognitive vulnerabilities such as Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), to improve continuity of care.