PALTC23 Conference Recordings FR24 Breaking Science: Presentations from Leading Researchers in PALTC Medicine

Rani Rao, MD, CMD, is Medical Director of Primary care service line for New York Presbyterian Queens Medical Group. Her previous role was Chief Medical Officer for Coler/NYC Health+Hospitals. She is a board certified internist and geriatrician who is fellowship trained in medical ethics at U Chicago McLean Center for Clinical medical Ethics. She has been a speaker in various national forums including annual PALTC meetings and Corser symposium for bio-ethics. She was awarded Medical Director of the Year 2023 by PALTC. She is a member of the PALTC Ethics committee.

Laurent Adler, MD, CMD is a Senior Medical Director for Optum’s ISNP Nursing Home Plan in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.  He is responsible for quality care by serving as a resource to field-based clinicians, drives critical thinking at the senior leadership team level and coordinates solutions to clinical challenges.  He is vice-president of the Georgia chapter of AMDA.

Irene Hamrick, MD, CMD, obtained her BS in Nursing at Western Carolina University (WCU), attended East Carolina University School of Medicine, completing her residency and geriatric fellowship there also and remained there 20 years. She moved to the University of Wisconsin- Madison to start an interdisciplinary geriatric teaching program. Since 2019, she is Chair of the Office of Geriatrics at the University of Cincinnati and Chief of Geriatrics and Palliative Care at the Cincinnati VA. She has been a Medical Director for over 25 years. Her research interests include falls, osteoporosis, dementia, diabetes and dehydration. Dr. Hamrick has dozens of publications on her research studies and has over 100 national and international presentations. She has numerous awards for leadership, teaching and mentoring. In her spare time, she enjoys downhill and cross-country skiing, running, bicycling, social dancing and playing with her four grandsons.

Julie Gammack, MD, CMD, FACP, received her Medical Degree from the University of Minnesota followed by an internal medicine residency and geriatric medicine fellowship at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She was on faculty for two years at Baylor College of Medicine in the Section of Geriatrics and then joined Saint Louis University Division of Geriatric Medicine. Dr. Gammack is a Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education. She is a former program director for the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program, Certified Medical Director, and is a medical director at a teaching nursing home. Her teaching and administrative interests are focused on long-term care and medical education.

Philip Sloane, MD, MPH, is the Elizabeth and Oscar Goodwin Distinguished Professor, of Family Medicine, Associate Chair for Academic Development, and Co-Director of the Program on Aging, Disability, and Long Term Care, and Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He is a nationally recognized geriatrician and continuously funded National Institutes of Health researcher in the field of aging. Dr. Sloane was the co-editor of JAMDA from 2018-2022.

Michele Bellantoni, MD, CMD, is Associate Professor and Clinical Director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the Medical Director of the Specialty Hospital Programs of the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and the Johns Hopkins Medicine Post-acute Care Collaborative. She is President of the Mid-Atlantic Medical Directors Association and Chair of the AMDA New Provider Work Group of the AMDA Education Committee. She is a former member of the AMDA Board of Directors and former Chair of the AMDA annual Meeting Program Sub-committee.

Vivian Ewa, MBBS, CCFP (COE), MMedED, FCFP, FRCP Edin., completed her medical training at the University of Benin, Nigeria followed by a general professional training in Internal Medicine and obtained her MRCP(UK) in 1999. Dr. Ewa completed training in Family Medicine at the University of Calgary in 2003 and then went on to complete her training in Care of the elderly Medicine. She has a master’s in medical education from the University of Dundee. She is a clinical associate professor in the department of Family Medicine, University of Calgary and is the Medical Director for Facility Living, Alberta Health Services- Calgary Zone and the Section chief for senior’s care, Department of family Medicine at the University of Calgary.

Ellen Kaehr, MD, CMD, is the Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. She serves as a clinician educator who teaches, geriatric medicine fellows, geriatric psychiatry fellows, and palliative care fellows in addition to internal medicine residents. She serves on the program planning committee and poster sub committee for AMDA. As a medical director and CMD, she is dedicated to high quality care, dementia care, and advance care planning in PALTC.