Richard W. Besdine, MD, has devoted his career to development and advancement of geriatrics through university-based and public health care policy work for 30 years. He is Professor of Medicine, Director of the Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research at Brown University, Director of the Division of Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine, Chief of Geriatrics for Lifespan, and first Greer Professor of Geriatric Medicine. Dr. Besdine also served as Interim Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences at Brown Medical School (2002-2005). He is past President of the American Geriatrics Society (2004), and chair of the Board of Directors (2005).

Dr. Besdine has created innovative recruitment and training programs for future leaders in the field of geriatrics, and trained nearly 100 faculty geriatricians while leader of the three fellowship programs he founded; he has designed the discipline-specific and interdisciplinary programs to meet educational needs for primary health care professionals in geriatrics. Dignity for older adults and academic excellence have characterized his approach to care of elderly persons. His activities have included clinical care, teaching, research, administration, public policy, international affairs, writing, and evaluating the work of others; he has been listed in multiple editions of Best Doctors in America for internal medicine and geriatrics. He has authored nearly 100 scholarly publications on aging, and edits widely in medicine. Before coming to Brown in 2000, he was Professor of Medicine, founding Director of the UConn Center on Aging and first Travelers Professor of Geriatrics and Gerontology at the U of CT Health Center (UCHC) School of Medicine. He was also Principal Investigator of a NIH Claude Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, and oversaw studies of interventions to prolong vitality in older persons. Prior to coming to CT in 1986, he was on the Harvard Medical School faculty for 15 years. During that time, he co-founded Harvard's Division on Aging with John W. Rowe, M.D., and developed one of the first academic Geriatrics fellowship training programs (1977).

Dr. Besdine spent 1995-1997 in Federal service; he was Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Health Standards and Quality Bureau for the Health Care Financing Administration, responsible for setting standards, inspection, enforcement and improvement of health care quality for our nation's 70 million Medicare beneficiaries and Medicaid recipients. As HSQB Director, he had responsibility for 750 staff and a $960 million budget.

He has served as panelist on the elderly on the President's Commission on Mental Health, as consultant to the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in Geriatric Medicine, on NIA's Task Force on Reversible Dementia, and on many scientific review panels and study sections. He serves on the National Board of Directors for the American Federation for Aging Research, for the American Geriatrics Society, the Education and Research Foundation of the American Society of Consulting Pharmacists, and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Alliance for Aging Research. A national reputation for leadership in geriatrics was recognized with the American Geriatrics Society's 1991 Milo D. Leavitt Award for eminence in geriatric education. He has also been honored with the 1995 Freeman Award of the Gerontological Society of America, the 1997 President's Award of the American Society on Aging, and the 1998 Joan Quinn Award.

Publications

Merck Manual of Geriatrics (3rd ed. [Editorial Board]). 2000, Merck, Rahway, NJ

Trabucchi R, Maggi S, Besdine RW (Eds) Special Issue on Alzheimer's Disease. Aging: Clinical and Experimental Research. 2001;13 (3):141-260.

Besdine RW, Rubenstein L, Snyder L (Eds.). Medical Care of the Nursing Home Resident (Monograph). 1996, American College of Physicians, Philadelphia.

63. Coleman EA, Besdine RW. Integrating quality assurance across sites of geriatric care. In: Calkins E, Boult C, Wagner EH & Pacala JT. (Eds.). New Ways to Care for Older People. New York: Springer; 1999; pp. 185-95.

Cassel CK, Besdine RW, Siegel LC. Restructuring Medicare for the Next Century: What Will Beneficiaries really need? Health Affairs. 1999;18:118-131.

Bradley EH, Besdine RW. Outcomes-based quality improvement: can we reduce the data collection burden? J Am Geriatr Soc. 1998;46:534-5.

Besdine RW. Improving health care quality by reimbursement policy. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1998;46:788-90.

Besdine RW. Clinical approach: an overview. In: Cassel CK et al. (Eds.) Geriatric Medicine (3rd Ed.) 1997; Springer, New York pp.155-68.

Besdine RW. Managed care and older Americans: opportunity and risk. Generations. 1997;20:64-8

Fried BM, Besdine RW. A perspective on academic medicine from the nation's largest managed care purchaser. Academic Med. 1996;71:260-1.

Geriatrics Review Syllabus (3rd ed., Editorial Board). 1996, American Geriatrics Society, New York.

Besdine RW, Rubenstein LZ, Cassel C. Nursing Home Residents Need Physicians' Services (Editorial). Ann Intern Med. 1994;120:616-18.

Besdine, RW. Geriatrics content in residency curricula. Am J Med. 1994;97 (suppl 4A):10S-12S

Prestwood KM, Besdine RW. Geriatric Medicine. JAMA. 1992;268:360-362.

Besdine RW, Dicks RS, Rowe JW. Delirium in the elderly. In: Katzman R, Rowe JW (Eds.). Principles of Geriatric Neurology. 1992, F.A. Davis Co., Philadelphia. pp. 266-80.

Smith DM, Winsemius DK, Besdine RW. Pressure sores in the elderly: can this outcome be improved? J Gen Int Med. 1991; 6:81-93

Epstein AM, Hall JA, Fretwell M, Feldstein M, DeCiantis ML, Tognetti J, Cutler C, Constantine M, Besdine RW, et al. Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment for Ambulatory Patients: A Randomized Trial in an HMO. JAMA 1990; 263: 538-544.

Besdine RW. The maturing of geriatrics (Editorial). N Engl J Med 1989; 320: 181-2.

Coll PP, O'Connor PJ, Crabtree BF, Besdine RW. Effects of Age, Education, and Physician Advice on Utilization of Screening Mammography. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1989; 37:957-62.

Rowe JW and Besdine RW. (eds.) Geriatric Medicine (2nd Ed.) 1988, Little, Brown and Co., Boston.

Levkoff S, Besdine RW, Wetle, T. Acute Confusional States (Delirium) in the Hospitalized Elderly. Ann Rev Gerontology and Geriatrics. New York: Springer, 1986; 1-26.

Besdine RW. Medical Student and Postgraduate Physician Training in the Nursing Home. In: Schneider E (Ed.) The Teaching Nursing Home. New York: Raven Press, 1985; 309-18.

Besdine RW. Decisions to withhold treatment from nursing home residents. In: Kapp MB, Pies HE, Doudera AE (Eds) Legal and Ethical Aspects of Health Care for the Elderly. 1985. Health Adm. Press, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Rowe JW and Besdine RW (eds.) Health and Disease in Old Age. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1982.

Besdine RW. The nursing home as a base for training medical students in geriatric medicine. In: Proceedings of American College of Physicians Conference. Changing needs of nursing home care. Philadelphia: American College of Physicians, 1981; 79-85.

Epstein AM, Hall JA, Besdine RW, et al. The Emergence of Geriatric Assessment Units. The "New Technology of Geriatrics." Ann. Intern. Med. 1987; 106:299-303.

Levkoff S, Cleary P, Wetle T, Besdine RW. Illness Behavior in the Aged: Implications for Clinicians. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1988; 36:622-29.

Besdine RW. Functional Assessment as a Model for Clinical Evaluation of Geriatric Patients. Public Health Reports 1988; 103:530-536.

Besdine RW. Decisions to withhold treatment from nursing home residents. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1983; 31:602-606.

Besdine RW. Educational utility of comprehensive functional assessment in the elderly. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1983; 31:651-656.

Besdine RW, Wetle T. Surveillance of high risk geriatric patients. Commissioned by the National Institute on Aging for the 1981 White House Conference on Aging.

National Institute on Aging Task Force (Corresponding author). Senility Reconsidered: Treatment possibilities for mental impairment in the elderly. JAMA 1980; 244:259-263.