Fellows

Andrew Costa is the Schlegel Research Chair in Clinical Epidemiology & Aging and an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact as well the Department of Medicine at McMaster University (https://experts.mcmaster.ca/display/acosta). He serves as the Scientific Director of the St. Joseph’s Centre for Integrated Care (https://stjoescic.ca/) and is an Associate Scientific Director of the Canada Longitudinal Study on Aging. He is an interRAI Fellow, and member of the Instruments and Systems Development (ISD) Committee. His program of research makes use of health information (‘big data’) to target, develop, and evaluate models of care in home and community care, emergency departments, hospitals, and long-term care (https://bdg.mcmaster.ca/). He also leads work on digital platforms that help patients and their caregivers navigate home and community care services (https://www.yourcareplus.ca). From 2014 to 2022, he has over 100 publications and has held more than $8 million CAD in research funding as the nominated primary investigator.

Associate Professor Jason Ferris is a drug and alcohol epidemiologist and biostatistician with 20 years of public health research experience. He leads the Global Substance Use and Mental Health Unit and is the Director of the Research and Statistical Support Service (RASSS) in the Faculty of Medicine. University of Queensland. His extensive research portfolio, at the intersection of Substance Use and Mental Health, represents his efforts to increase public understanding of the harmful impacts of substances on mental and physical health. Involved in more than 25 funded research projects (over $15m) as a chief investigator. He is also the Chief Biostatistician for the Global Drug Survey since 2013. 2020 The University of Queensland recognised his contributions to his research field: he was awarded and Academic Leader of the Future Award, and in 2019 The Outstanding Mid-Career Researcher within the Centre for Health Services.

Head of Psychiatry and Mental Health Department. Complejo Asistencial de Zamora/Zamora Hospital. Head of Psychiatry Research Group of the Biomedicine Research Institute (IBSAL). Associate Professor of the Salamanca University (Dpto. PETRA). Member of the Salamanca Medicine Academy. Secretary of the Ethical Committee for Research of Zamora. President of the Spanish Geriatric Psychiatry Association. Member of the board of Interdem Network (www.interdem.org) and the European Association of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Brant E. Fries, Ph.D. L.L.D. is a founder and President of interRAI, and Professor Emeritus of Health Management and Policy and Research Professor Emeritus of the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Michigan.  He is a principal author of the Resource Utilization Groups system for classifying nursing home residents, used as the basis nationwide to pay over $33 million per year to United States nursing homes under the federal Medicare system, as well as case-mix systems for persons with intellectual disability and inpatients in mental health facilities.  He co-authored the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) used in every US nursing home and the interRAI-Home Care used in half of US states.  Within interRAI, he also has co-authored assessment systems for aging persons, prisoners in correctional facilities, and caregivers.  In his research he has worked with US states and international governments to develop better decision-making, from the clinical to policy level.  He has authored over 40 books (plus over 50 translated into other languages) and over 150 peer-reviewed articles on care of vulnerable populations and quantitative modelling of health care systems.

Dr. Vjenka Garms-Homolová, has PhD in Psychology, is Professor Emeritus for Health Management at the Alice Salomon University, and Honorary Professor for Theory and Practice of Health Services Research at the Technical University of Berlin. She worked as a Health Scientist for most of her academic career. Her research focuses on health care for chronically ill and elderly people and on coping with disabilities in the social context. She is an active member of the State Network for Women's Health (www.frauengesundheit-berlin.de), and member of the German Society for Gerontology and Geriatrics (https://www.dggg-online.de/). As an interRAI-Fellow she cooperates with a worldwide network of researchers on the development and implementation of standardized assessments for various care settings (interrai.org). She is the author and co-author of numerous scientific and popular publications. Since 2016, she has been writing textbooks for students of social psychology and psychological diagnostics.

Jeffrey Harman, PhD, a health economist, is a Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine at the Florida State University College of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Health Services Research, Policy, and Administration from the University of Minnesota. His research explores utilization and expenditures of health services, with an emphasis on the impact of health policies on costs and services for vulnerable populations, such as individuals with limited incomes and individuals suffering from mental illness. Dr. Harman currently leads two evaluations of Florida’s Medicaid programs, which provides health insurance for Florida’s poorest residents.  He is an active member of AcademyHealth, which brings together stakeholders to inform health policy and practice, and the interrRAI Network of Mental Health (iNMH). Dr. Harman’s research has resulted in over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

Elizabeth P. Howard is an Associate Professor in the Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, Adjunct Scientist at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, and Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Howard is a member of interRAI’s Network in Integrated Care and Aging and the Instrument and Systems Development Committee. Dr. Howard has experience examining healthy aging interventions including web-based arts intervention, comprehensive geriatric assessments, and wellness coaching program. She also contributes nursing expertise to development, testing and implementation of geriatric models using interRAI’s national and international data to address risks for common geriatric syndromes such as cognitive decline, falls, and frailty. As a certified adult/geriatric primary care nurse practitioner and an acute care nurse practitioner, Dr. Howard maintains a practice in an internal medicine clinic setting.

Her scholarly activities focus on vulnerable, underserved older adults with 2 intersecting domains. Dr. Howard has experience examining healthy aging interventions including web-based arts intervention, comprehensive geriatric assessments, and wellness coaching program. She also contributes nursing expertise to development, testing and implementation of geriatric models using interRAI’s national and international data to address risks for common geriatric syndromes such as cognitive decline, falls, and frailty.

Naoki Ikegami is Professor Emeritus at Keio University, Tokyo. He was Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Keio School of Medicine, from which he received his MD and PhD. He also received a Master of Arts degree with Distinction in health services studies from Leeds University (United Kingdom). During 1990-1991, he was a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Medical School. He is a founding member of interRAI (a non-profit international consortium of researchers and clinicians focused on care planning instruments), and served as a consultant to the WHO and the World Bank. He has been President of the Japan Society of Healthcare Administration and of the Japan Health Economics Association. He has sat on various national and state government committees, including the Chair of the Investigative Specialist Sub-committee on Case-mix Based Reimbursement for Chronic Inpatient Care and member of the Reforming Elder Healthcare Council and of the End-of-Life Health Care Council. His research areas are health policy, long-term care and pharmacoeconomics. His publications include “The Art of Balance in Health Policy - Maintaining Japan’s Low-Cost Egalitarian System” (Cambridge University Press, 1998) with John C. Campbell, “Japanese universal health coverage: evolution, achievement, and challenges” (lead author) (Lancet, 2011), “Universal Coverage for Inclusive and Sustainable Development: Lessons from Japan” (editor) (World Bank, 2014). He has contributed a chapter in “Regulating Long-Term Care Quality” (edited by Vince Mor et al, Cambridge University Press, 2014) and in “Long-term care reforms in OECD Countries (edited by Chistiano Gori et al, Policy Press, 2016).

Dr Ng Wai Chong is the Founder and CEO of NWC Longevity Practice, a start-up providing aged care consultancy, training, and research, as well as direct clinical services. For more than 20 years, Dr Ng has worked as a community aged-care physician in a non-profit organization in Singapore. He currently consults and trains for international and regional organisations, government agencies, healthcare institutions and universities. His areas of expertise are person-centred care, frail care, dementia care, end of life care, healthy ageing, and population health, spanning clinical work from policy formulation and implementation to care system design. Dr Ng has also been the chair and member of various government committees. Dr Ng received the Minister for Health Award 2018 from Singapore’s Ministry of Health and The Courage Fund Healthcare Humanity Award 2016 and was named the Global Ageing Influencer by Ageing Asia in 2018.

Ms Faezah is a Registered Nurse over 30years of experience with special training in geriatric care in Singapore, Acute Care and Community Care. Currently she is leading the clinical team at the Agency for Integrated care, appointed by the Ministry of Health to conceptualise and develop a standardized care assessment framework relevant to Singapore. In her work at the agency, she has developed the interRAI Training, Competency and Audit Framework. Currently she supported the development of interRAI assessment in preparation for national roll out of standardized care assessment through partnership with various governmental and non-governmental stakeholders.

Dr. Stewart is a Full Professor and Clinical Training Director at the School and Applied Child Psychology Program at Western University, Faculty of Education, London, Ontario Canada. Additionally, she is an Adjunct Assistant Professor within the Department of Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Division at Schulich School of Medicine at Western University.  She is also an Associate Scientist at the Children’s Health Research Institute (CHRI), interRAI Research Fellow and Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of School Psychology.  Dr. Stewart is leading the international development and implementation of the interRAI suite of instruments for children and youth with mental health needs within a variety of service sectors (e.g., education, health).

Katarzyna Szczerbińska, MD, PhD, Professor of Geriatrics with expertise in Long-term Care and health promotion among elderly people. Head of the Research on Aging Society Laboratory at Chair of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Medical Faculty, Jagiellonian University Medical College in Kraków, Poland; a specialist in geriatric medicine and long-term care at the Geriatric Clinic in the University Hospital. A principal investigator in several high-budget international research projects (FP5 CLESA, FP7 PREDICT, FP7 PACE; SPRINT-T. Currently, in I-CARE4OLD and NAVIGATE funded from HORIZON.  Since 2004 a Fellow of InterRAI, and ISD member. Since 2019 the Secretary General of the ExCom IAGG-ER; a Board member in the Polish Society of Gerontology and the Collegium of Geriatrics Specialist in Poland. A member of the EUGMS task for FRIDs and the EAPC RG on Aging and Palliative Care. Author of over 250 scientific publications available on JU Repository, and on Scholar Google.

Prof. Dr. Chantal Van Audenhove is full professor at Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven (Belgium). She teaches psychology and applied communication for medical students and for students in dentistry. She is the director of LUCAS, Center for Care Research and Consultancy of the KU Leuven. As an expert in practice- and policy-oriented research her focus is on mental health and the care for people with dementia. Previous research projects dealt with – among others – the relationship between informal caregivers and patients, the quality of the living environment, Expressed Emotion in the professional and informal care relationship, vocational rehabilitation, stigma and discrimination, prevention of depression and suicide. She is an active member of international networks, such as: the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD), the interRAI Network of Mental Health (iNMH) and INTERDEM, a pan-European network of researchers focusing on psychosocial interventions in dementia.