Clinical Research and Innovations

The mission of the Clinical Research and Innovations Core is to pioneer groundbreaking research and innovative clinical practices that transform health care for older adults. We will cultivate a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment that fosters discovery, drives evidence-based interventions, and enhances the quality of life. Integrating clinical research and older adult care ensures that the lives of all older adults are aligned.

Goals of the core

Promoting and facilitating aging research in all UTHealth Houston schools
Obtaining extramural funding to implement evidence-based interventions to improve outcomes among older adults with multimorbidity
and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias
Building the Institute on Aging’s infrastructure to advance aging research at UTHealth Houston

Future directions

Developing the team that will support the Clinical Research and Innovations Core activities
Obtaining extramural funding to support the development and implementation of the Patient Priorities Care approach at UT Physicians and Harris Health System
Funding two pilot projects led by junior faculty to promote collaboration and aging research at UTHealth Houston
Collaborating with McGovern Medical School to participate in an alternative payment model funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medical Services to enhance the care of older adults with dementia
Obtaining extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health to become a Center of Excellence for aging research

Director

Rafael Samper-Ternent, MD, PhD, is a clinician-scientist with more than a decade of research and clinical experience. He is an associate professor in the Department of Management, Policy, and Community Health at the School of Public Health. He earned his MD and had a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in geriatrics at Javeriana University in Bogota, Colombia. He then received his PhD in health services research from The University of Texas Medical Branch. His research focuses on understanding factors that lead to health disparities among older Hispanics and their family caregivers, especially those with multimorbidity and Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Samper-Ternent aims to produce evidence that informs intervention development, cultural adaptation of evidence-based interventions, and implementation of behavioral interventions to improve the well-being of older adults and their family caregivers.