Research Inclusion Across the Lifespan: A Good Start, but There Is More Work to Be Done.

I am a geriatrician with research training in population health and chronic disease epidemiology. Through my work, I aim to inform patient-centered care that focuses on optimizing function and quality of life over traditional disease-based approaches. Much of my work has focused on chronic kidney disease, however I have recently broadened the scope of investigation to include other chronic conditions including hypertension and systemic lupus erythematosus. The unifying theme of this work has been applying a geriatric research approach to large studies of chronic disease. As Associate Director of Clinical Programs at the Durham VA Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, I have also had the opportunity to partner with nephrologists to develop clinical programs in the VA designed to provide patient-centered, geriatric care for older adults with kidney disease.

Jennifer Gierisch, PhD,  is behavioral scientist and health services researcher. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Heath Sciences and the Department of Medicine at Duke University. She is a core investigator with the Center of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation (ADAPT)  where she serves as the leader of the Partnered Research Methods Core (PRESTO)  and Director of the VA OAA Health Services Research Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Gierisch also is the Co-Director of the Evidence Synthesis Program (VA ESP) at the Durham Veteran Affairs Health Care System. She also served as a faculty director of the Duke Clinical Translational Science Institute's  Community Engaged Research Initiative (CeRi) for five years

Dr. Gierisch’s research focuses on three overarching areas: 1) behavioral research on the psychosocial factors that influence appropriate uptake and maintenance of complex health behaviors (eg., weight management, smoking cessation, cancer screening); 2) evidence synthesis on key health and healthcare topics to enhance uptake of evidence-based interventions to improve patient and health system outcomes; and 3) participatory and  community engaged research approaches.

Area of expertise: health behavior, community-engaged research, evidence synthesis, intervention development,  qualitative research

Dr. Bosworth is a health services researcher and Deputy Director of the Center of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation (ADAPT)  at the Durham VA Medical Center. He is also Vice Chair of Education and Professor of Population Health Sciences. He is also a Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Nursing at Duke University Medical Center and Adjunct Professor in Health Policy and Administration at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests comprise three overarching areas of research: 1) clinical research that provides knowledge for improving patients’ treatment adherence and self-management in chronic care; 2) translation research to improve access to quality of care; and 3) eliminate health care disparities. 

Dr. Bosworth is the recipient of an American Heart Association established investigator award, the 2013 VA Undersecretary Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Services Research (The annual award is the highest honor for VA health services researchers), and a VA Senior Career Scientist Award. In terms of self-management, Dr. Bosworth has expertise developing interventions to improve health behaviors related to hypertension, coronary artery disease, and depression, and has been developing and implementing tailored patient interventions to reduce the burden of other chronic diseases. These trials focus on motivating individuals to initiate health behaviors and sustaining them long term and use members of the healthcare team, particularly pharmacists and nurses. He has been the Principal Investigator of over 30 trials resulting in over 400 peer reviewed publications and four books. This work has been or is being implemented in multiple arenas including Medicaid of North Carolina, private payers, The United Kingdom National Health System Direct, Kaiser Health care system, and the Veterans Affairs.

Areas of Expertise: Health Behavior, Health Services Research, Implementation Science, Health Measurement, and Health Policy