# Mid-Career Mentoring Award For Patient-Oriented Research in Frailty and Health Outcomes

> **NIH NIH K24** · HEBREW REHABILITATION CENTER FOR AGED · 2024 · $172,477

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Increasing evidence suggests that frailty—a common problem of old age characterized by reduced physiologic
reserve and inability to tolerate acute stressors—may determine inter-individual variability in outcomes after drug
therapy and surgical procedures among older adults. While this understanding supports the idea of personalizing
treatments based on a patient's frailty level, there is little empirical evidence on how to use frailty information to
maximize benefits or avoid harms in older patients. There is a pressing need to understand how frailty affects
the outcomes of various medical and surgical treatments. The candidate is a geriatrician and epidemiologist
who has established a robust patient-oriented research program on frailty, geriatric pharmacoepidemiology, and
prediction of functional outcomes after surgery at Hebrew SeniorLife Marcus Institute for Aging Research. He is
also a dedicated mentor of trainees and junior faculty, who have published a number of peer-reviewed papers
and have successfully competed for training and career development awards in aging research. The candidate's
research program has a long-term objective to improve care of older adults with frailty by generating high-quality
evidence, training future clinicians and researchers, and changing health systems and policy. Toward this goal,
his current NIA-funded research focuses on use of a frailty index for Medicare data to determine who should be
treated with a drug therapy or a surgical procedure and who should not due to lack of benefit or increased
likelihood of harm. This K24 Mid-career Investigator Award proposal will allow the candidate to develop a formal
mentoring program, expand his research, and become a more effective mentor and leader. The specific aims
are to: 1) develop a mentoring program in frailty research for early-stage and new investigators from diverse
clinical and research backgrounds; 2) conduct high-quality research to determine heterogeneity of treatment
effects by frailty for a broad range of medical and surgical interventions; and 3) acquire new research skills in
implementation science and enhance capacity in mentorship and leadership within and outside geriatrics. The
outstanding collaborative environment of Hebrew SeniorLife and other Harvard-affiliated institutions will provide
resources (e.g., various data sources, including Medicare data, computing environment, and career development
training courses) and support (e.g., data scientists and research methodology experts) needed to accomplish
the proposed activities. The advancement of the candidate's mentoring and research program, supported by
this K24 award, will foster growth of well-trained clinician investigators in aging research and accelerate adoption
of personalized medicine for older adults across medical and surgical specialties based on a patient's frailty level.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10907455
- **Project number:** 5K24AG073527-03
- **Recipient organization:** HEBREW REHABILITATION CENTER FOR AGED
- **Principal Investigator:** Dae Hyun Kim
- **Activity code:** K24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $172,477
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-07-01 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10907455

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10907455, Mid-Career Mentoring Award For Patient-Oriented Research in Frailty and Health Outcomes (5K24AG073527-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10907455. Licensed CC0.

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