Pittsburgh GRECC

- Mechanisms of recovery and novel treatments for neurodegenerative disease, stroke and vascular dementia, and TBI chronic traumatic encephalopathy
- Novel rehabilitations strategies for stroke, aphasia, frailty and cardiac disorder
- Developing novel clinical care systems for pain and dementia
- Polypharmacy and medication errors in the elderly

- Molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying aging related cognitive and sensorimotor impairment due to cerebral ischemia and traumatic brain injury
- Telemedicine, medication safety, polypharmacy and patient safety in the post-acute and long term care setting
- Neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying language and communicative impairments and their treatment in post-stroke aphasia
- Optimizing evaluation and management of chronic low back pain and lumbar spinal stenosis in older adults
- Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in progressive supranuclear palsy and related tauopathies
- Enhancing functional capacity in older adults with cardiovascular disease, in respect to both process of care and underlying subcellular mechanisms
- Molecular mechanisms that drive aging and age-associated pathologies
- Synaptic and neurotransmitter changes associated with age-related neurodegenerative disease; cellular and molecular processes underlying aging and Alzheimer’s disease
- Recovery of motor function after stroke

- Interactive interprofessional education activities during which students teach each other
- Training of primary care-based practitioners in evidence-based interdisciplinary chronic pain management
- Advanced training in geriatrics scholarship following completion of clinical training

- Improved access of rural Veterans with cognitive decline to interdisciplinary telehealth team
- Collaboration regarding telehealth care to rural Veterans w/other GRECC clinical teams throughout the nation in the Virtual Geriatrics group (previously GRECC Connect)
- Implemented e-consults to reconcile medications and deprescribe inappropriate medications in older Veterans
- Ongoing intensive therapy program to improve aphasia (Program of Intensive Residential Aphasia Treatment and Education - PIRATE) and successful implementation to other sites
- Virtual caregiver support program for caregivers of Veterans with dementia
- Innovative cardiac rehab program that manages cardiovascular disease in older adults and addresses the context of multimorbidity, frailty, cognitive impairment, disability and polypharmacy

Robot-Assisted Arm Training in Chronic Stroke: Addition of Transition-to-Task Practice Neurorehabil Neural Repair https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31328671/
Aging Back Clinics-a Geriatric Syndrome Approach to Treating Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults: Results of a Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial Pain Med https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31503275/
Central Nervous System Medication Burden and Risk of Recurrent Serious Falls and Hip Fractures in Veterans Affairs Nursing Home Residents J Am Geriatr Soc https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30306541/
Frailty Among Older Adults With Acute Myocardial Infarction and Outcomes From Percutaneous Coronary Interventions J Am Heart Assoc https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31475601/
Role of UCHL1 in axonal injury and functional recovery after cerebral ischemia Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331095767_Role_of_UCHL1_
in_axonal_injury_and_functional_recovery_after_cerebral_ischemia
Pittsburgh GRECC
VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System
University Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15240
Phone 412-360-2917
Fax 412-360-4922
Affiliations
University of Pittsburgh
GRECC Director
Steven H. Graham, MD, PhD
Associate GRECC Director
Steven M. Handler, MD, PhD, CMD
Associate Director, Research
VACANT
Associate Director, Education and Evaluation (Acting)
Debra K. Weiner, MD
Associate Director, Clinical
Michelle I. Rossi, MD, MPH
Administrative Officer
Dawn M. Fuhrer, BA
Dawn.Fuhrer@va.gov