Description:

“Blood Pressure Lowering: Failure to Implement a Key Component of the Public Health Goal of Reducing Risk for Physical and Cognitive Disability”

Guest:

Jeff D. Williamson, MD, MHS

Professor of Internal Medicine and Epidemiology

Chief, Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine

Director, Center for Healthcare Innovation

Bio:

Jeff Williamson is a Professor of Internal Medicine and Epidemiology and an internationally known geriatrician and clinical trialist. He serves as co-leader of the Wake Forest Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center administrative core and is the clinical core principal investigator for the University’s Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center. Dr. Williamson received his M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia, a Master's degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, and completed his fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Williamson’s primary research interests are in understanding relationships between chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes in the maintenance of cognitive and physical function in aging adults, and in developing research methods for including older persons in clinical trials. Dr. Williamson is currently serving on the leadership team for nationwide research studies funded by the National Institutes of Health. These include the SPRINT-MIND, PREVENTABLE, and Dementia-CARE studies, and he co-leads the Alzheimer’s Association CDC BOLD initiative on dementia prevention in public health systems. Altogether, his NIH research studies have involved more than 40,000 adults over age 65 and 15,000 persons over age 75.