Faculty and Staff
Principal Investigators
James Powers, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine, Director of the Geriatrics Fellowship, and Clinical Associate Director of the VA-Tennessee Valley Healthcare System Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC). Principal Investigator and Director of the
(VR-GEC). He provides overall direction to the program, oversees the development and implementation of curricula, directs community outreach, and evaluates curricula and overall program performance.
Robert S. Dittus, MD, MPH
The Albert and Bernard Werthan Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University; Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health, within which sits the Section of Geriatric Medicine; Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health; Director of the VA-Tennessee Valley Healthcare System GRECC; Director of the Center for Improving Patient Safety; Director of the VA/Vanderbilt Quality Scholars Program; and Director of the Vanderbilt K30 Clinical Research Curriculum. Co-Principal Investigator and Co-Director of the VR-GEC. He assists Dr. Powers in the overall management of the VR-GEC; provides coordination and oversight to the informatics, library support, and geriatric consultation efforts; and assists with evaluation and continual program improvement efforts.
Participating Faculty and Staff (listed Alphabetically)
Ray Booker
Simulation Engineer with the Office of Medical Simulation. He works with Drs. Weinger and Slagle in implementing simulation curricula.
Lonnie Burnett, MD
Professor of OB-GYN. He provides specialty expertise in the development of appropriate curricula in geriatrics for Ob-GYN trainees.
Josh Denny, MD
Post Doctoral Fellow in Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt. Dr. Denny coordinates the capture and presentation of geriatric educational information in the medical school curriculum, and the presentation of that material for education of residents and practicing physicians through links to KnowledgeMap placed in the EMR system (StarPanel). He is also working on the expansion of the medical student portfolio project to track all medical students’ geriatric patient encounters.
Anna Lea Dozier
Program Coordinator for Center for Quality Aging
Roger Dmochowski, MD
Professor of Urology. He provides specialty expertise in the development of appropriate curricula in geriatrics for Ob-Gyn and Urology trainees.
Eugene Wesley Ely, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine (Critical Care). He provides specialty expertise in the development of appropriate curricula in geriatrics for Critical Care Residents.
Gottlieb Friesinger, MD
Professor Emeritus of Medicine (Cardiology). He provides specialty expertise in the development of appropriate curricula in geriatrics for Cardiology trainees.
Dario Giuse, PhD
Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics. He assists Dr. Gregg in developing the chronic-disease management capabilities to educate and assist medical students, residents, and practicing physicians as they see geriatric patients.
Nunzia Giuse, MD, MLS
Professor of Biomedical Informatics and of Medicine, and Director of the Eskind Biomedical Library. She works with N. Sathe to develop evidence-based information links to the EMR for decision support and interface learning modules with the personal portfolio project.
William Gregg, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine. He creates geriatric-related decision support in the chronic disease management components of StarPanel to support physician education every time a geriatric patient is seen.
Harry Gwirtsman, MD
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship. He provides specialty expertise in the development of appropriate curricula in geriatrics for these trainees.
Ralf Habermann, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Director of the Senior Care ACE unit, and Co-Director of the Long Term Care Program. He is involved with the implementation of geriatric training in the long term care setting. He also assists in developing the EMR in the long-term care environment.
Howard Kirshner, MD
Professor of Neurology. He provides specialty expertise in the development of appropriate curricula in geriatrics for Neurology trainees.
Kimberly Lomis, MD
Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of the Surgery Clerkship. She provides specialty expertise in the development of appropriate curricula in geriatrics for surgical trainees.
Randolph Miller, MD
Donald A.B. and Mary M. Lindberg University Professor of Biomedical Informatics and of Medicine. He coordinates and directs the VR-GEC Informatics Team.
Sumathi Misra, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine. She heads the curriculum implementation component of the VR-GECprogram.
William Obremskey, MD
Assistant Professor of Orthopedics and Program Director, Orthopedics Residency. He provides specialty expertise in the development of appropriate curricula in geriatrics for orthopedics trainees.
Josh Peterson, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine. He works with Dr. Miller as a member of the Informatics Design Team in implementing geriatric drug dosing education and decision support at the point of care.
Allison Pingree, PhD
Director, Vanderbilt Center for Teaching. She collaborates in the overall evaluation of the project and provides insight and direction into teaching methods.
Tracy Porchak
Research Coordinator for the VR-GEC and the Center for Quality Aging.
Renee Porier
Medical Education Specialist for the VR-GEC and the School of medicine.
Lisa Rawn, MA
Assistant Professor of Medical Education and Administration, and Director, Program in Human Simulation in the Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment. She works with Dr. Shatzer in implementing standardized patient curricula.
Deborah Robin, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine and Co-Director of the Long Term Care Program. She is involved with the implementation of geriatric training in the long-term care setting. She also leads the effort to coordinate regional geriatrics educational resources and assists in developing the EMR in the long-term care environment.
Donna Rosenstiel, LCSW
Program Manager for the VR-GEC. She performs overall coordination for the program, assists in curriculum development, tracks program planning and management, and reports and manages data about the program.
Nila Sathe, MLIS
Associate Director for Research, Eskind Biomedical Library. She develops evidence-based information links to the EMR for decision support and interfaces learning modules with the personal portfolio project. She also coordinates the EBL components of the project web site.
John Schnelle, PhD
Hamilton Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Quality Aging. He leads the Center for Quality Aging Advisory Service.
John Shatzer, PhD
Associate Professor of Medical Education and Administration; Director, Office for Teaching and Learning in Medicine; and Director, Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment. He leads the evaluation component of the VR-GEC.
Jason Slagle, PhD
Post Doctoral Fellow in simulation. He works with Dr. Weinger to develop simulation technology to support specialty training curricula.
Anderson Spickard III, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Director of the Internal Medicine Clerkship. He works with Dr. Miller as a member of the Informatics Design Team in implementing the coordination of the EMR, KnowledgeMap, EBL, and the personal portfolio to affect knowledge support at the point of care.
Lemuel Waitman, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics. He helps integrate geriatric-related education and decision-support capabilities as a member of the Informatics Design Team, and helps to provide geriatric education at the point of care for every geriatric patient seen at Vanderbilt.
Stuart Weinberg, MD
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics. He is expanding “ConsultWiz” to provide intelligent data collection and advice-giving functionality whenever a specialty consultation is requested for a geriatric patient. He works with Dr. Miller as a member of the Informatics Design Team. He also consults on the development and maintenance of the project web site.
Matthew Weinger, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology; Director, Office of Medical Simulation. He collaborates in utilizing simulation models, virtual teaching experiences, and just-in-time training scenarios for new curriculum design and assessment.
