Professional Advisory Board

Robert N. Butler, MD

"I've always been concerned with the under utilization of care management services in this country. The SeniorBridge model helps set the stage for a new, innovative approach to eldercare."

SeniorBridge Professional Advisory Board Annual Symposium Comments (video) (audio)

An internationally recognized leader in the fields of gerontology and geriatrics, Dr. Butler is the president and CEO of the International Longevity Center-USA and Professor of Geriatrics and Adult Development at the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

From 1975 until 1982 Dr. Butler was the first director of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. While there, Dr. Butler identified Alzheimer's disease as a national research priority. In 1982 he founded the nation's first department of geriatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he served as Chairman and Brookdale Professor of Geriatrics until 1995. In 1990 Dr. Butler co-founded the International Longevity Center, a non-profit, non-partisan organization devoted solely to the study of population aging and its impact on society.

Dr. Butler won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his book Why Survive? Being Old in America and recently published The Longevity Revolution. He has served as the medical editor-in-chief of Geriatrics, a journal for primary care physicians. Dr. Butler has received numerous other awards as well, most recently the Andrus Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Retired Persons.

Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN

"SeniorBridge's integrated team of professionals — all under one roof, all working towards the same goal — gives them the ability to successfully handle even the most difficult cases, many of which involve care issues often neglected."

SeniorBridge Professional Advisory Board Annual Symposium Comments (video) (audio)

Terry Fulmer is The Erline Perkins McGriff Professor and Head of the Division of Nursing at the New York University Steinhardt School of Education. She is also the Co-Director for The John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing, and Director of the Consortium of New York Geriatric Education Centers. Terry is the Principal Investigator for the Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training Project (GITT), which is funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation, Inc. She received her bachelor's degree from Skidmore College, her master's and doctoral degrees from Boston College and her Geriatric Nurse Practitioner Post-Master's Certificate from NYU.

Dr. Fulmer's program of research focuses on acute care of the elderly and specifically, elder abuse and neglect. Her research work on "Dyadic Vulnerability/Risk Profiling for Elder Neglect" is funded from the National Institute on Aging in partnership with the National Institute of Nursing Research. Her publications include over 125 articles, 50 chapters and 16 books.

Jason Karlawish, MD

"Physicians are particularly challenged by patients and families who resist talking about their problems and making plans for the future. The SeniorBridge model is set up to help patients and their families get past this resistance and recognize the importance of planning for the future."

SeniorBridge Professional Advisory Board Annual Symposium Comments (video) (audio)

Jason Karlawish, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics with tenure, Senior Fellow of the Center for Bioethics and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and Scholar at the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Associate Director of the Penn Memory Center and the Director of the Alzheimers Disease Center’s Education and Information Transfer Core. Doctor Karlawish’s research focuses on ethical issues in human subjects research and the care of persons with dementia. He has investigated issues in dementia drug development, informed consent, quality of life, research and treatment decision making, and voting by persons with dementia.

His current research examines elderly persons’ willingness to allow family to serve as a proxy for research decision making, consent capacity, whether Alzheimer’s Disease clinical trials can be redesigned to increase family caregivers’ willingness to enroll, and voting rights for persons with cognitive disability. His clinical practice focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of persons with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. He directs the ethics track and co-directs the aging track of Penn’s Masters in Clinical Science of Epidemiology program.

Peter Rabins, MD, MPH

"I have a special interest in care models that approach patient care from several different perspectives — the medical, the social and the psychological — to provide the in-between stages of care and improve quality of life. The SeniorBridge model provides this type of integrated approach."

SeniorBridge Professional Advisory Board Annual Symposium Comments (video) (audio)

Dr. Rabins has focused his career on the study of psychiatric disorders in older persons. He is the director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Program at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and has joint secondary appointments in the Departments of Medicine and Health & Policy Management.

Dr. Rabins was one of the first researchers to examine the interaction between the quality of life of both patients and caregivers. Dr. Rabins has done extensive work on ways to measure the quality of life in patients, including co-developing the Alzheimer's Disease Related Quality of Life scale (ADRQL), which can be used to compare medical and environmental treatments and compare the effectiveness of medications that may improve the patient's memory and/or mood.

Dr. Rabins co-authored The 36-Hour Day, the first comprehensive book about Alzheimer's disease for the layperson. He received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Florida, a M.D. from Tulane University School of Medicine and a M.P.H from Tulane University School of Public Health.

Burton Reifler, MD, MPH

"The SeniorBridge approach helps families gain insight and understanding. More importantly, SeniorBridge offers families a way to make things better."

SeniorBridge Professional Advisory Board Annual Symposium Comments (audio)

Since 1987, Dr. Reifler has been a Professor of Psychiatry at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he currently serves as the Kate Mills Snider Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry and Senior Advisor to the Dean. He was Chair of Psychiatry there from 1987-2001, and from 2001-2005, served as Director of Faith in Action, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national program on interfaith volunteer caregiving. During 1987-2001, he was also Director of "Partners in Caregiving," a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program focused on developing adult day centers throughout the country.

Dr. Reifler serves as President of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology for 2008. He received the Ruth Von Behren Award from the National Adult Day Services Association in 1996, and the Jack Weinberg Memorial Award for excellence in geriatric psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 2002. He is a past Chairperson of the APA's Council on Aging.

Peter J. Whitehouse, MD, PhD

"I'm excited about being part of an organization that offers an innovative approach to providing care to older adults. The SeniorBridge integrated model doesn't just look at a patients illness — it moves beyond illness to quality of life by helping both the patient and their family emphasize key values and share healing stories."

SeniorBridge Professional Advisory Board Annual Symposium Comments (video) (audio)

Dr. Peter J. Whitehouse is Professor of Neurology, and former Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Psychology, Nursing, Organizational Behavior, and Bioethics and History. He practices at University Hospitals of Cleveland in the Joseph Foley Elder Health Center at Fairhill Center, caring for individuals with concerns about their cognitive abilities as they age. Dr. Whitehouse has been recognized with national and local awards for his clinical practice.

Dr. Whitehouse received his MD-PhD (Psychology) from The Johns Hopkins University (with field work at Harvard and Boston Universities), followed by a Fellowship in Neuroscience and Psychiatry and a faculty appointment at Hopkins. In 1986, he moved to Case Western Reserve University to develop the University Alzheimer Center, which is now part of the University Neurological Institute at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. He obtained a Master's degree in Bioethics and pursued a Fellowship in Organization Behavior at Case.

Dr. Whitehouse's research interests encompass the neurobiology of Alzheimer's disease and related conditions. He founded the International Working Group for the Harmonization of Dementia Drug Guidelines, has leadership roles in several other national and international groups, and is a sought-after speaking consultant worldwide. He is on the editorial board of several neurologic and geriatric journals and recently published The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Disease (with coauthor Daniel George). Dr. Whitehouse has devoted himself to creating and participating in innovative learning environments that promote collective wisdom, environmental sustainability, and social justice. With his wife Catherine he founded The Intergenerational School (www.tisonline.org) an internationally recognized, national award winning community public school which provides developmentally appropriate, real life learning experiences for people of all ages.