"What Every Internist Should Know About Post-Acute and Long-Term Care"

Made Possible by the Lorraine Sulkin Shein Endowment Fund

Speaker:

Debra Saliba, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Internal Medicine
Division of Geriatrics
Director, The Anna and Harry Borun Center for Geriatric Research
University of California Los Angeles

About Debra Saliba:

Debra Saliba received her medical education at the University of Alabama School of Medicine, where she also completed internal medicine residency training. She then obtained advanced training through fellowships in geriatrics and health services research at UCLA and the Los Angeles VA while also earning a master's degree in public health.

Among noteworthy career highlights are Dr. Saliba’s work to develop and test the Vulnerable Elders 13-item Survey (VES-13), a survey that uses individuals’ reports of function and health to efficiently identify older adults at risk for decline or death. The VES-13 has been translated into eight languages and is used in clinical practice, research, and health systems around the world. A second highlight is her leadership of a nationwide team that developed a new Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessment — a tool used more than 14 million times a year to identify the needs of persons in nursing homes and to guide their care planning. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also uses MDS to generate care quality measures and to inform reimbursement for post-acute care in U.S. nursing homes. Dr. Saliba and colleagues pioneered the use in MDS of patient self-report questions to identify patient needs. This work laid the foundation for inclusion of patient reported symptoms in other post-acute care settings to improve coordination and care quality. Dr. Saliba’s research has also explored home and community-based services and supports, the relationship of staffing patterns to care quality, and interventions to decrease the need for and adverse consequences of hospitalization.

She has served in multiple roles for the American Geriatrics Society, including President (2017-2018) and Board Chair (2018-2019).