Andrea Gilmore-Bykovskyi receives Rising Star Award in Health Services and Aging Research

New York, NY – The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), a national non-profit organization whose mission is to support and advance healthy aging through biomedical research, is proud to recognize the outstanding contributions of Andrea Gilmore-Bykovskyi, PhD, RN, with the 2021 Terrie Fox Wetle Rising Star Award in Health Services and Aging Research.

This award honors a health services researcher in an early or middle phase of his/her career who has already made important contributions with work that respects the value of multidisciplinary health services science and that is likely to be highly influential in shaping practice and research for decades to come.

Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi is the Deputy Director, UW Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR); Informatics Lead, Care Core, Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center; and an Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing. She is also Affiliate Faculty, Division of Geriatrics, Health Service Care Research Program, in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and UW-Madison College of Engineering.

Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi is recognized for her dementia-focused health services research program, investigating social and behavioral communication patterns among individuals with moderate to advanced dementia, and the role of temporally situated observational measures and inclusion of persons with dementia and their caregivers in this line of research. Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi is currently leading a large observational study to investigate episodes of lucidity in advanced dementia, as well as considerations for strengthening progress in outcome evaluation among persons living with dementia through multidisciplinary and community-informed health services research.

The award is named in honor of Terrie Fox Wetle, PhD, who has devoted her professional career to three related domains. She has been a tireless advocate for inclusion of aging-related health services research in Public Health. She has lovingly and effectively mentored hundreds of new investigators in a broad array of disciplines. As inaugural Dean, she built a thriving School of Public Health at Brown University, while leading efforts to improve aging-relevant content in public health curricula. Professor Wetle sets an example of visionary leadership, mentoring and administrative excellence. In her honor, AFAR established the Terrie Fox Wetle Rising Star Award in Health Services and Aging Research in 2019.

“The needs of America’s growing older population demand innovative health services,” notes Stephanie Lederman, EdM, AFAR Executive Director. “The visionary work of Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi and Dr. Wetle exemplify applying research to improving the wellness of seniors and communities. AFAR is proud to support the future of health services and aging research with this award.”

Nominations for the award are by invitation and are judged by an independent panel of leading aging researchers. The award is a framed citation and carries a cash prize of $5,000.

Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi will receive the award and present a lecture at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America in November 2021. She will discuss progress in investigating social and behavioral communication patterns among individuals with moderate to advanced dementia, particularly in minority and diverse populations.

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Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi is an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) School of Nursing, Investigator and Informatics Lead of the UW Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) Care Research Core, current Paul B. Beeson Scholar, and Affiliate Faculty in the UW School of Medicine & Public Health Division of Geriatrics. Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi leads a program of research focused on promoting effective and equitable care and research for persons living with, and at risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, particularly among vulnerable and high-risk groups at challenging points in the health and care continuum, such as during acute illness and advanced disease. Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi has served as PI on 8 federal/foundation research grants. Many of her contributions have focused on underrepresented and vulnerable populations, and have evaluated structural and care delivery-based barriers to optimal care and health services among persons living with ADRD. Dr. Gilmore-Bykvoskyi has led advances in ADRD health services research that have stewarded new areas of investigation surrounding ADRD-specific care delivery patterns and outcomes; having identified specific caregiver approaches that precipitate or mitigate non-cognitive symptoms (i.e. agitation), established the first electronic health record-based phenotype model for detecting ADRD cases using unstructured clinical data, and led some of the first research describing the specific transitional care needs of ADRD patients following acute illness care. Through efforts to ensure that the benefits of these advances reach all populations, Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi has also led formative and seminal efforts to identify barriers to inclusive research and intervene upon and fundamental mechanisms of research participation disparities among underrepresented ADRD populations. Many of these contributions have required integrating multiple complex data sources in novel ways encompassing mixed-methods and qualitative methods, behavioral observation, intervention research, and electronic health record and Medicare data analysis. Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi has supervised over 25 students across these studies, many from diverse backgrounds. Across a majority of this work, Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi has established new and successful partnerships with a range of clinical and community partners and partnered directly with people living with dementia and caregivers to fully integrate their perspectives into the research process and results. Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi has served on regional and national initiatives to address management of symptoms experienced by persons living with dementia, and has received funding from the American Nurses Foundation, the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence, the National Institute on Aging, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) is a national non-profit organization that supports and advances pioneering biomedical research that is revolutionizing how we live healthier and longer. For four decades, AFAR has served as the field’s talent incubator, providing more than $184 million to more than 4,200 investigators at premier research institutions nationwide. A trusted leader and strategist, AFAR also works with public and private funders to steer high quality grant programs and interdisciplinary research networks. AFAR-funded researchers are finding that modifying basic cellular processes can delay–or even prevent–many chronic diseases, often at the same time. They are discovering that it is never too late–or too early–to improve health. This groundbreaking science is paving the way for innovative new therapies that promise to improve and extend our quality of life–at any age. Learn more at http://www.afar.org or follow AFARorg on Twitter and Facebook.