Rose Ann DiMaria-Ghalili, PhD, an associate professor in Doctoral Nursing and the Nutrition Sciences is the most recent speaker at the BAYADA Home Health Care Speaker Series, a new Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN), and recipient of an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Anyone would call that a successful, if not very busy, few months.

 

Nominated by Roberta Waite, EdD, a professor in the Doctoral Nursing department and assistant dean of Academic Integration and Evaluation of Community Programs, DiMaria-Ghalili was inducted as one of 164 Fellows of the AAN’s class of 2016 on October 22, 2016. “It was almost like graduation,” said DiMaria-Ghalili. “It was a big to-do. They bring everyone up on stage and do a little bio about you. It’s really quite an honor to be included among the other Fellows and the Academy, who are great leaders in the nursing profession.” 

 

Just three days after her induction, DiMaria-Ghalili kicked off the 2016-2017 BAYADA Home Health Care Speaker Series. Her topic, "Malnutrition in Older Adults Across the Care Continuum: Research, Practice, and Policy," has been the focus of her research since her doctoral work in the 1990s. “It’s always been my area of research, and I just continue to build upon it. Doing research is like building a puzzle. Each piece connects with another, so over the years all my studies link together,” she said. 

 

DiMaria-Ghalili will be using another facet of her work in nutrition as a part of a team led by principal investigator Peter Lewin, PhD, the Richard B. Beard Distinguished University Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems. They were recently awarded an R01 grant by the NIH to work on a project titled “Enhanced Ultrasound Treatment of Chronic Wounds with Monitoring of Healing and Chronic Life Outcomes.”  “I’m a coinvestigator, and I’ll be leading the nutrition aim of the grant,” said DiMaria-Ghalili. “It’s a five-year randomized control trial where we will use an ultrasound device to treat wounds, chronic leg ulcers, and diabetic foot ulcers. My role on the grant will be to coordinate the clinical aspects of it in addition to looking at the role of nutrition and inflammation on wound healing and how the new technology improves the quality of life for the individual.” 

 

Other collaborators on the project include Michael S. Weingarten, MD, a professor of surgery at the College of Medicine, Leonid Zubkov, PhD, a research professor, and Michael Neidrauer, PhD, an assistant research professor, both in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, Juan Muniz, PhD, an assistant research professor in CNHP’s department of Nutrition Sciences, and David Margolis, MD, PhD, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.  

 

“I’m just so pleased that we received this award. Typically the National Institute of Nursing Research doesn’t fund device trails, so this is exciting,” said DiMaria-Ghalili. “It’s a great time to be at Drexel. Because of the technology that the engineers are developing, we at CNHP can really help translate that and move it into practice. I think this is a great example of collaboration.  You can’t do research in isolation!” 

 

To learn more about the NIH grant, click here.