Research

The main themes of the last five years include:

1. Health care service evaluation. Some examples of this include:

• Prospective study on Factors Predictive of successful outcome from admission and treatment within a Geriatric Assessment and Rehabilitation Inpatient Service. 2000-2004 (Puxty, Knott and Frank

• Needs Assessment and pilot project of role of geriatric services within KGH emergency department 1999-2001 (Puxty, Knott and Hart)

• User satisfaction survey of a geriatric outreach service 2002-03 (Knott, Jewell and Puxty)

• Objective-Based Framework for Enhancing Care of the Elderly at the Gateway Community Health Centre (J Fitzgibbons, C Knott, J Puxty,  A Jewell, et al)

2. Innovation regarding educational design and delivery methods. Some example of this include:

• development of an interdisciplinary educational tool to facilitate ethical decisions related to enteral tube feeding nutrition in the frail elderly. 1998 (Puxty et al)

• Office of Learning Technologies $85,108. “Expanding and Enhancing Learning Opportunities for Paid Caregivers of the Rural Elderly: A comparison of three delivery models for staff development”. (Puxty, Jewell, Hart et al 1999)

• Provincial Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders Initiative #2: Physician Training: $124,420. Proposal to enhance capacity for Family Medicine Preceptors to respond to the educational needs of residents relating to the assessment and care of Alzheimer Disease & Related Dementias, 2003-2004 (Puxty and Feldman)

• Establishment of the WWW site for Provincial Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders Initiative #2: Physician Training (www.dementiaeducation.ca) – (Puxty et al 2004)

• Proposal for the Development of a Southeastern Ontario Knowledge Exchange Network for Primary and Specialized Services for the Elderly (submitted to PHTF 2003 and Ontario Change Foundation 2004) – (Puxty, Dudgeon, LeClair, Knott, et al)

3. Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders Research. Some examples of this include:

• Homocysteine and cognitive decline in older adults: a cohort study (Garica)

• Homocysteine and Dementia (Garcia et al)

• Risk Factors for Dementia. Alzheimer Society Canada. 2001-2003. (Garcia et al).

• Sub-clinical Vitamin B12 deficiency and Cognitive Function in the Elderly. Ontario Mental Health Foundation. (Garcia)

• Clinical trials with Galantamine, MPC-7869 etc (Garcia et al)

• Patterns of use and potential adverse events associated with cholinesterase inhibitors (Gill et al)

4. Clinical Studies. Some examples of this include:

• Prescribing patterns and knowledge of medication use by seniors within a Day Hospital setting (Frank et al)

• Assessing the Older Driver (separate studies by Frank and Puxty

• Resuscitation preferences of the elderly inpatients (Frank)