Leaders in Research
You may view the list of scholars arranged
| Cynthia M. Boyd, MD, MPH Assistant Professor Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Dr. Cynthia Boyd found that applying disease-specific guidelines to older adults with multiple health problems can be limited by the complexity, expense and burden of the suggested therapeutic regimens and monitoring requirements. With her Beeson award, Dr. Boyd plans to survey older adults and their caretakers and physicians in order to develop a practical tool to integrate treatment burden and patient preferences, to assist in physician-patient medical decision-making. This tool will help physicians create an integrated, feasible treatment plan with prioritization of therapies, which will improve the patient's quality of life, care and health. Dr. Boyd earned her MD from Duke and her MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received a Hartford/AFAR Fellowship award in 2001, while completing her geriatric fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. | |
| Primary Research (for Beeson Program): Treatment Burden in Older Adults with Diabetes and Multimorbidity
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The increasing prevalence of chronic disease in the aging U.S. population presents substantial challenges to delivering medical care that is both patient-centered and consistent with evidence-based guidelines. Optimal care for our aging society entails the development of practical evidence-based treatment models for medically complex older patients that permit flexible goal-setting according to patient preferences and perceived treatment burden. Currently there is a lack of guidance to develop treatment plans for these complex patients, with individual treatment guidelines based on a single disease often conflicting for many frail elderly patients.