# Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research: Yael Schenker, MD, MAS

> **NIH NIH K24** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $184,580

## Abstract

ABSTRACT: The growing population of older adults with advanced cancer experiences significant
public health problems, including steep declines in quality of life, receipt of care that does not reflect
patients' values and preferences, and high rates of caregiver burden. Inadequate attention to patient
priorities and age-related concerns (e.g., function, cognition, and social support)—contribute to
morbidity in this population. The emerging field of geriatric palliative care seeks to address age-related
concerns and align care with patient goals over the trajectory of chronic and serious illness. The
overarching goal of this K24 proposal is to enhance the candidate's mentorship of students, fellows,
and junior faculty pursuing geriatric palliative care research, with a particular focus on identifying unmet
geriatric palliative care needs and developing and testing interventions to improve quality of life and
goal-concordant care for older patients with advanced cancer. As a successful mid-career investigator
with a track record of leading successful palliative intervention trials with seriously ill older patients, the
candidate is well-positioned to mentor the next generation of aging researchers. This award will
leverage an outstanding longitudinal dataset of over 400 audio-recorded `primary' palliative care visits
with older patients with advanced cancer and longitudinal patient- and caregiver-reported outcomes to
explore optimal geriatric palliative care intervention designs. The research aims are to (1) characterize
communication about age-related concerns in primary palliative care visits with older adults with
advanced cancer and their family caregivers; (2) identify missed opportunities for addressing age-
related concerns in primary palliative care visits for older adults with advanced cancer and their family
caregivers; and (3) refine a conceptual model for primary palliative care delivery that incorporates age-
related concerns and can be optimized to improve quality of life for older adults with advanced cancer.
The K24 award will provide protected time for the candidate to update and expand her mentorship
program, building bridges between researchers in geriatrics, palliative care and oncology. She will
leverage outstanding aging research and mentoring resources available at the University of Pittsburgh;
learn new skills to foster inquiry, wellbeing and resilience among trainees; and create a Junior Faculty
Visiting Professor Program for geriatric palliative care researchers. This proposal is significant and
innovative because it will support new clinical investigators using novel mentoring techniques and
develop pilot data to inform large-scale trials addressing deficiencies in quality of care for a burgeoning
population of older adults with advanced cancer. It is highly feasible because the candidate is a
committed mentor with ongoing R01 funding, from an outstanding research environment with strong
geriatrics programs and a large po...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10817044
- **Project number:** 5K24AG070285-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Yael Schenker
- **Activity code:** K24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $184,580
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-04-15 → 2026-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10817044

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10817044, Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research: Yael Schenker, MD, MAS (5K24AG070285-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10817044. Licensed CC0.

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