Esther Forti, Ph.D., R.N.

Associate Professor, College of Health Professions;
Director, South Carolina Geritatric Institute,
Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC.

Phone: (843) 792-5487
Fax: (843) 792-0679
Email: fortie@musc.edu

Education:

Ph.D., 1993, Pennsylvania State University

Current Projects:

• (POET) Parkinson Outreach and Education Training - Assessment of educational and resource needs of primary care clinicians and caregivers of patients with Parkinson's Disease. (Forti & Bergmann).
• VA caregiver study - Health assessment, resource needs, and in-home education of VA caregivers in rural areas of South Carolina . (Bachman & Forti).
• Geriatric Education Center program - develop and disseminate training on geriatrics for faculty, students, health and social services providers across South Carolina . (Forti)
• Geriatric Oral Health Education - Develop and disseminate a 40-hour training curriculum on oral health care for the older adult for faculty, student, health and social services providers across South Carolina . Develop module and deliver training on oral health assessment for primary care providers.

Selected Recent Publications:

Forti, E.M. & Koerber, M. (2002). An outreach intervention for rural older African Americans. Journal of Rural Health, 18, 168-178.

Forti, E.M. (2003). A rural South Carolina minority geriatric model. In Gamm, L. (Ed.). Rural Health Priorities and Models for Practice (A companion document to Healthy People 2010 for rural areas), HRSA, federal Office of Rural Health Policy.

Forti, E.M. (2003). Rural health policy. Rabin, J. & Kilpatrick, A.O. (Eds).. Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Policy. NY: Marcel Dekker, Inc.

Brown, R.T., Fuemmeler, B.F., & Forti, E.M. (2003). Health disparities and access to care. M.C. Roberts (Ed.), Handbook of Pediatric Psychology (3 rd Edition). New York , NY : The Guilford Press.