FSM
 
Mission
To conduct and facilitate clinical research that will optimize the quality of life for community-dwelling older people, the frail, and the seriously ill in order to improve the quality of care that these individuals receive from health care organizations and members of the health care team.

Clinical research activities at the Buehler Center are actively informed by the clinical and teaching service of the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation Department of Geriatrics.

Departmental activities include outpatient comprehensive geriatric assessments, inpatient geriatric consults, complex medical consults at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, osteoporosis and bone health evaluation and management, and geriatric rehabilitation care at the Warren Barr Pavilion. Clinical teaching is conducted at all sites of care for trainees at all stages of medical education.  The geriatric fellowship program trains one fellow per year. 

Clinical faculty conduct research in the areas of gero-oncology and pharmacology, metabolic bone disease, Alzheimer disease and dementias, and geriatric patient safety. The faculty are involved in numerous practice improvement projects that range from the development of clinical guidelines in gero-oncology to auditing hospital readmission of frail older people.

Chicago Campus Primary Services
Adnan Arseven, MD                            John T. Clarke, MD
Assistant Professor                            Associate Professor, Emeritus

Beatrice J. Edwards, MD                     Lee A. Lindquist, MD, MPH
Associate Professor                            Assistant Professor

June M. McKoy, MD, MPH, JD               Karen Glasser Scandrett, MD
Assistant Professor                             Assistant Professor

Herbert C. Sier, MD                            James R. Webster Jr., MD
Assistant Professor                            Professor

Clinical Research
NEST (Needs Near the End of Life Screening Tool)
The NEST assessment tool was designed to help members of the health care team assess and address illness-related needs that are not met through traditional medical assessment.  After development and validation, it was tested among cancer patients at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and found to reliably detect needs in the areas of illness distress, access to care, goals of care, and caregiving needs. The next phase of study will engage the science of implementation in order to mobilize clinician response to identified needs in hospital, clinic, and nursing home settings.  Our goal is to comprehensively address the whole-person needs of individuals who are living with chronic and life-threatening illness.      
Tailored Implementation of Practice Standards (TIPS)
The clinical research section is partnering with the Patient Safety Education Project to develop packages for implementation of best clinical practice.  These packages, termed TIPS, will enable many different health care settings to implement the most up-to-date, evidence-based care for problematic medical conditions that affect older people.  The first project in development in our section is a TIPS for pressure ulcer prevention and it will be designed specificallly for use in nursing homes.  Further iterations of the pressure ulcer prevention package will allow for improvement of care in hospital settings and in the emergency department, sites where ulcers often start or worsen significantly.  In the future, we will create other TIPS packages that will address other nursing home care issues such as pain management and weight loss.