Seminar series on Aging at MUSC:
The members of the executive committee select and approve the speaker list but
anyone interested in inviting a speaker can suggest potential speakers.
Endowed Chair in Parkinson’s disease:
One of the areas that needs strengthening at MUSC is basic and translational
research in the mechanism and potential treatment paradigms of Parkinson’s
disease. The Center on Aging will pursue potential donors for the endowment of
a chair in this area.
Endowed Chair in Stroke:
South Carolina ranks number 1 in the incidence of stroke in the United States;
yet, there is no active research program on stroke at MUSC. The Center on Aging
aims to pursue an endowment for a chair to direct a research program in this
area within the next few years.
Endowed Chair in Alzheimer’s disease:
The economics and demographics of Alzheimer’s disease warrants a significant
focus in this research area at MUSC. We will actively recruit national and international
talent in this area, in order to build a Center for excellence at MUSC, centralized
around an endowed chair in the area. We will also utilize this talent to pursue
an Alzheimer Disease Research Center grant, ADRC, from the National Institutes
on Aging.
Endowed Chair in Palliative and End-of-Life Care:
The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science has indicated that
there is an urgent need to improve palliative and end-of-life care. MUSC is the
recipient of several prestigious research grants focusing on palliative and end-of-life
care, and MUSC assumes a leadership role in South Carolina in advancing the needs
of terminally ill patients and their families.
An endowed Chair in Palliative and End-of-Life Care at MUSC would facilitate the further development of critical research in this vital area. A community focus on end-of-life could also be enhanced by recruitment of a nationally prominent expert, and would promote acquisition of grant research support for interdisciplinary research and clinical activities.
Behavioral Center for Animal Models of aging:
One major resource that is missing at MUSC is a Center for behavioral studies
of age-related animal models. This includes cognitive and motor testing, as well
as testing of different drug delivery paradigms. These animal models are essential
for drug development and other translational research enterprises, and must be
present for successful recruitment of top-notch scientists.
This relates to all areas of research in aging, but primarily stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. The lack of such behavioral facilities has already been a barrier in hiring of faculty in the field of aging and age-related disease to MUSC.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for animal models of aging:
This fairly novel field of research provides a necessary translational tool for
examination of age-related phenomena as well as drug development. There is already
a group in place at MUSC, with members from many departments of COM, to investigate
the possibility of obtaining a small animal imaging unit to MUSC. The development
of a small animal imaging Center with state-of-the art equipment will allow us
to proceed with recruitment of top scientists in the field of neurodegeneration
and other age-related diseases.
Aging animal facility (Vet care and pathology):
Aged animals need special care and special conditions, such as micro barrier
environment and increased veterinary care. We propose to establish a Center for
veterinary care of aged animals, on close conjunction with the transgenic facility
and the behavioral testing area.
Through the collaboration with SC-GEC, the Center on Aging is able to offer a variety of different programs that will strengthen the knowledge of Healthy Aging and age-related diseases for our SC citizens. The community outreach programs also serve as identifiers of specific disease profiles (such as the Parkinson’s Disease Registry) and are used for networking with other organizations and institutions. The areas below are important programs that would fortify and extend our current community programs in South Carolina, but cannot be funded by our current assets:
Professional Conferences: An important function of Center on Aging is to provide leadership and support to statewide research and educational conferences on gerontology/geriatrics for all health professionals. We currently support several different conferences, but need more funds in order to expand this important function. Below are a few such events that we would like to initiate, and that would strengthen research on aging in our state.
Charleston Primetime Annual Conference: This community-sponsored event is in need of financial support in order to continue. This event has attracted a large audience of retired and semi-retired residents of the greater Charleston area, and has featured an extensive list of topics related to healthy aging..
SC Rural Community Summit on Aging: an interactive summit aimed at developing consensus on forming interdisciplinary aging networks to address needs of the elderly.
SC Summer School of Gerontology:The South Carolina School of Gerontology is a successful ongoing program, and an initiative involving most teaching institutions in our state. The program provides training and ongoing education to health. We currently provide scholarships and participate as speakers to the Summer School, but would like to expand our duties by providing invited lecturers and more scholarships.
Feasibility Study for Volunteers in Medicine Replication Program:
The Volunteers in Medicine Institute is a non-profit organization based in Hilton
Head, SC, but has been replicated in numerous sites across the country. The program
consists of retired health care professionals assisting in the delivery of health
care to medically under-served and disadvantaged patients. The program has received
national recognition, and is the recipient of many awards. A feasibility study
could be conducted to examine the potential to replicate the program using retired
MUSC health care professionals.
Interdisciplinary Team Teaching, ITT: $60,000/year for 3 years
The ITT program would entail a brand new concept in education; students would
learn to interact with each other already during their early phase of education
in all health professions. We propose to form teams of students consisting of
a mixture of different disciplines, so that medical students, pharmacy students,
nursing students etc would work together and visit older adult patients. They
would receive training in particular areas by trained professionals, such as
dieticians, dentists, pharmacists, and geriatricians, and then visit the patients
to record their histories, interview them regarding medications, and perform
physical exams. The data would then be entered by palm pilots into a Center on
Aging-based database where geriatric cases could be developed and clinical research
performed.
The patient would benefit from the simultaneous attention of several different health professionals, and it would also potentially lead to an attitude change towards the different health professions as well as towards elderly patients for the students. We plan to seek funding for this project both from NIH and private foundations. Pilot data need to be gathered to prove that MUSC is able to undertake such a bridging task in education.
Elder Abuse Seminar for faculty: $ 5,000.
The Center on Aging and the SC-GEC will collaborate with Adult Protective Services
Agency to develop educational materials and also to organize a workshop on Elder
Abuse that will occur every three years at MUSC, available for all faculty and
students at MUSC as well as for Health Professionals throughout the state.
Ethnogeriatric/Cultural Competency workshop for faculty and students: $10,000.
In collaboration with SC-GEC, the Center on Aging will arrange workshops on ethnogeriatric/cultural
issues. SC-GEC will develop educational materials and organize the workshops,
but needs Center on Aging to provide funding and competent presenters for the
event. It will be a required course for the residents in Geriatrics.
Resource Lending Library: $5,000/year
One of the major functions of Center on Aging is to be a resource on Gerontology/Geriatrics
for Faculty, students, and health professionals. Center on Aging and the SC-GEC
therefore intends to develop/maintain a lending library of educational resources
for faculty and students. However, in order to sustain a first-class library,
additional funds are needed.
Development of a fellowship program in clinical Geriatrics. $250,000.
There is currently no fellowship program in Geriatrics at MUSC. Developing such
a program would give Geriatrics presence on campus, and provide a valuable source
of young faculty interested in this field. However, additional funds are needed
in terms of recruitment of teaching faculty and space for this endeavor.
Development of an interdisciplinary course at MUSC. $30,000 /year for 5 years
The President of MUSC, Dr. Raymond Greenberg, has declared Healthy Aging as one
of four focus areas for MUSC during the next decade. As an important part of
the Strategic Planning, it has been suggested by the Education Focus group that
an interdisciplinary course on Gerontology/Geriatrics is needed for all students
at MUSC. We estimate that it will take 5 years to develop this course and most
funds are needed to support faculty time and effort.
Endowed Chair in Interventions and Outcomes $1,000,000.
An endowed chair in interventions and outcomes would encourage research to serve
the presently aging population. Older people are suffering from Alzheimer’s
disease depression, obesity and diabetes to name a few. Intervention and outcome
research is necessary to find solutions to present problems and to serve the
aging population of South Carolina. An endowed chair in this area will encourage
and serve as a focus for interdisciplinary research from all Colleges within
the University.
Annual interventions workshop $50,000/year.
An annual workshop sponsored by the aging center would be valuable to both clinician
and researcher and would bring national attention to the Center on Aging at MUSC.
Expert researchers would report on their studies to the MUSC community and in
this way significant outcomes would be translated into practice. National experts
would be invited to keynote and their presence on campus would provide added
incentives to conduct this type of research.