News at the URAI

Faculty in the Department of Medicine's division of Geriatrics/Aging will be a region-wide resource for skilled nursing facilities that see a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases, providing them with rapid-response videoconferencing mentorship as part of a national effort to bring resources to nursing homes in rural areas.

The University of Rochester Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center and the University of Rochester Aging Institute will provide virtual training and best practices-sharing to facilities throughout Upstate New York to support nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Led by Thomas V. Caprio, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Director of the Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center, Geriatrics/Aging faculty will use a videoconferencing tool that's long been used by UR to foster collaboration across long distances: Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), an innovative model to improve access to complex chronic disease and specialty care in underserved communities.

The nursing home training is a collaboration between the National Nursing Home COVID-19 Action Network, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and Project ECHO.

UR was first to bring Project ECHO to New York State more than 7 years ago, under the leadership of the Department of Psychiatry. It originally focused on delivering best practices in geriatric mental health and dementia care to primary care and nursing homes in the Finger Lakes Region, and has more recently extended services across New York state.

UR faculty will lead 16 virtual, interactive learning sessions with participating nursing home teams. Each session will include a brief lesson paired with case presentations and discussion, followed by a Q&A forum. Nursing homes can request the instruction, and receive grant-funded stipends for completing the training.

Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., D.M.Sc. has been awarded the International Prize for Translational Neuroscience of the Gertrud Reemtsma Foundation for her research in the glymphatic system, the brain's unique waste removal process.

Nedergaard's research was recognized by the Foundation for findings that "offer new approaches for treatments and preventive measures for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases."

First discovered by researchers in the URMC Center for Translational Neuromedicine in 2012, the glymphatic system piggybacks on blood vessels and pumps cerebrospinal fluid, washing waste from the brain. The accumulation of toxic proteins like beta amyloid are linked neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. Nedergaard's lab has since gone on to show how sleep disruption, age, and injury can impair the brain's ability to effectively remove waste.

Nedergaard was presented the award at a ceremony at the Max Plank Society in Cologne, Germany on September 10.

Three Wilmot Cancer Institute researchers received a highly-valued type of National Cancer Institute award that supports team science, a strategy needed for future success.

Known as a multi-principal investigator (MPI) award, the $3.85 million grant goes to Supriya Mohile, M.D., Karen Mustian, Ph.D., and Michelle Janelsins, Ph.D., as principal investigators. The trio will study a novel way to help adults who are 65 and older transition from chemotherapy to cancer survivorship.

All are leaders within Wilmot's Cancer Prevention and Control research program, but they bring different perspectives based on their interests, training, and expertise.

"Receiving an MPI award is a feather in the cap for Wilmot," said Hucky Land, Ph.D., Deputy Director of Wilmot and director of research. "It really demonstrates a new level of transdisciplinary activity. And within any cancer center you can measure success through projects like this one. Collaboration is what elevates the work to new places."

The project will study new interventions that improve function and overall health of older adults with cancer. Importantly, another major goal is to improve a patient's ability to attend follow-up appointments and avoid hospitalizations.

The research is designed to fill an observed gap in survivorship care for this demographic, said Mohile, who founded Wilmot's geriatric oncology clinic, one of the first in the nation.

By 2040, 73 percent of survivors will be 65 or older and almost 50 percent will be 75 years or older, and yet aging-related conditions are not routinely addressed in survivorship care.

The NCI funded the multi-investigator project at $770,000 per year for five years. Mohile, Mustian, and Janelsins have robust track records for groundbreaking studies in geriatric oncology, exercise oncology, and cognitive impairment related to cancer and its treatment. In fact, Mohile and Mustian were invited to give high-profile talks at this month's American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) virtual annual meeting, and Janelsins was recently elected as a Fellow to the Society of Behavioral Medicine, a high honor.

The team developed a program that combines geriatric assessment -- or triaging and managing physical and cognitive problems and social circumstances of geriatric oncology patients -- with a realistic and tailored education plan to improve function after chemotherapy.

They will conduct a randomized clinical study that enrolls patients from community oncology practices across the country. Researchers will also examine whether the new survivorship program has a positive impact on communication between cancer providers and primary care doctors and on care-giver distress or satisfaction.