Biography

Lewis Lipsitz, MD is the Director of the Institute for Aging Research at HSL, Chief of the Division of Gerontology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and Professor of Medicine at HMS. His research is focused on age-related alterations in blood pressure and cerebral blood flow regulation and their relation to falls, syncope, and cognitive dysfunction. Dr. Lipsitz has served as Principal Investigator of an NIA-funded Program Project Grant for 26 years, an Older American Independence Center Grant for 15 years, and a Hartford Foundation Center of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine for 15 years. In these roles he has assembled multidisciplinary teams from multiple academic institutions and laboratories to study the mechanisms and management of several important clinical geriatric syndromes, including falls, syncope, dementia, delirium, and frailty. He is was Principal Investigator of an NIA Merit Award to study the physiologic mechanisms of frailty in old age, which led to his current NIA-funded clinical trial that examines the effect of Tai Chi exercises on physical function and health care costs in frail elderly residents of subsidized senior housing facilities. He is also Principal Investigator of an R01 from the NIA to study cerebrovascular mechanisms of falls. His recent translational research includes demonstrations that Tai Chi exercise can improve physical function and balance control in frail elderly people, vibrating insoles based on the principal of stochastic resonance can improve gait and balance in older people, and the treatment of hypertension with ACE inhibitors can improve cerebral blood flow and executive function.

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