Geriatrics and Gerontology

Ronald Adelman, M.D. is the Medical Director of the Irving Wright Center of Aging and Co-Chief of the Division of Geriatrics Medicine and Gerontology at The New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Adelman's primary area of research concerns the medical encounter and the dynamics of the communication process between older patients and their physicians. His approach to study in this area is multidisciplinary, involving social scientists and physicians from other sub-specialties. With the goal of improving health outcomes among older adults who seek longitudinal health care services from out-patient primary care practices, Dr. Adelman's research suggests that successful relationships between older patients and their physicians will allow for discussion of sensitive topics, alleviate patient stress, improve patient knowledge, and enable older patients to be more astute users of health care services. Presently, Dr. Adelman and his associate, Dr. Michele Greene, have a number of ongoing research projects including a study of physician-patient interaction when the patient has cognitive impairment and research studying hospice nurse interactions with terminally ill patients.