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overview
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As a Geriatrician with a Master’s degree in Epidemiology, I have an abiding interest in understanding the role of technology in understanding and managing frailty in older adults. My work targets two areas of technology: wearable sensors and smart voice. I study how accelerometry-based mobility patterns relate to frailty and aging biomarkers and whether these devices can improve our understanding of frailty and enhance the frailty assessment. Through my work, I apply and analyze accelerometry data to assess and trend activity patterns, both as markers of frailty and to inform frailty activity interventions. I use data from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey as well as longitudinal, primary accelerometry and frailty data I collect in predominantly African-American older adults around the University of Chicago South Shore Senior Center. As a clinician, I established a novel frailty evaluation clinic in 2011, the Successful Aging and Frailty Evaluation™ (SAFE) clinic, in which I assess and manage frailty in all referred patients and support their caregivers. This clinical experience has informed my “in the trenches” perspective on the value of and remaining challenges to frailty measurement in practice. This clinic also serves as a recruitment site for frail adults for many collaborative research projects. My clinical work motivated me to co-develop a new technology-based program called “EngAGE” that leverages smart voice (e.g., Alexa) to deliver long-term mobility and socialization support to older adults while empowering their caregivers, a project that was conducted with a partnership I established with Orbita, Inc.
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