Juergen H. A. Bludau, MD, CMD
Acting Clinical Chief and Director of Clinical Geriatric Service
Dr. Bludau was born in Germany and educated in England. He received his medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and completed his postgraduate studies in the U.S. Board certified in Geriatrics, Dr. Bludau completed the Harvard Geriatric Fellowship. He is an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Gerontological Economic Research Organization in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. Prior to his current appointment, he served as the Medical Director of an academic geriatric center in South Florida. Dr Bludau’s interests are the primary care of dementia patients, the development of improved outpatient and inpatient geriatric services, and the transition of care between hospital and long-term-care facilities. Dr. Bludau resides in the Boston area with his wife and their three children.
Jatin Dave, MD, MPH
Dr. Dave, a Geriatrician and a Hospitalist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is a graduate of Gujarat University-B. J. Medical College in India. Dr. Dave completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and subsequently completed a General Internal Medicine fellowship at New York University. While there, he lobbied for prescription drug coverage for the elderly at the state and national levels. Dr. Dave went on to complete a Harvard Geriatric Medicine Fellowship and also received a master’s degree in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health.
In addition to patient care, Dr. Dave is committed to clinical education and teaches geriatric medicine to medical students, residents, and fellows, with a goal of improving the care that older patients receive. In 2004, he was selected as a Rabkin Fellow. This one-year fellowship, which is administered by the Carl J. Shapiro Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, provides Harvard Medical School faculty with an opportunity to advance their academic careers in medical education. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Geriatric Academic Career Award, a five-year career development award for academic geriatricians.
A particular interest of Dr. Dave's is improving communication between clinicians and patients. He says, " We understand that patient preferences regarding treatment options are quite variable, and at the Center for Older Adult Health, we strive to provide individualized, patient-centered care suited to each person."
Laurel Yates, MD, MPH
Dr. Yates is an Associate Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and in Geriatric Medicine. A Californian, Dr. Yates first came East to attend Boston University School of Medicine. After graduating, she returned to the West Coast to continue her medical training, including a surgical internship in Los Angeles and internal medicine residency in San Francisco. She moved back to Boston to complete a Clinical Fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at Harvard Medical School, followed by a Research Fellowship in Clinical Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Yates’ clinical interests include improving preventive measures, both in lifestyle and through medical intervention, to promote “active living.” “My goal is to help my patients grow older in the best possible health, maintaining the highest level of function, independence, and quality of life. Dr. Walter Bortz, a well-known geriatrician, wrote a book entitled Dare to Be 100, in which he described four simple strategies for healthy and successful aging: diet, attitude, self-renewal, and exercise. If I can help my patient achieve goals in these areas, the number of medications we have to call on is usually far fewer.”
In addition to patient care, Dr. Yates pursues her interest in healthy aging as a clinical investigator. Using data on men participating in the Physicians’ Health Study, she is studying what factors are associated with achieving exceptional longevity in good health. “We have nearly 900 men who have lived to age 90 or older since the study began in 1982. We’re finding not only what factors helped them survive to old age, but also what has been important in helping them maintain high degrees of physical and mental health and function. Not surprisingly, it’s not just genetics, but rather exercising, maintaining healthy weight, not smoking, and staying mentally and socially active.”
While Dr. Yates has become proficient in shoveling snow and negotiating the Boston rotaries, she enjoys vacationing in California to fly fish for trout in Sierra Mountain streams.
Peggy Edson, Nurse Practitioner
Peggy Edson, is a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner with the Center for Older Adult Health. Peggy has almost 40 years of nursing experience, and has been a Geriatric Nurse Specialist for 25 of those years. A graduate of St. Elizabeth’s School of Nursing in Boston, she received her bachelor's degree in nursing from Boston College and her master’s degree in nursing from Boston University, with specialization in gerontological nursing.
She started working at Brigham and Women's Hospital (formerly Peter Bent Brigham Hospital) in 1969. From 1982 until 1998, she was the Geriatric Clinical Specialist in the Geriatric Service, providing outpatient geriatric assessments, incontinence evaluations, and inpatient geriatric consultations. From 1998 until 2004, she was on staff at the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center, where she gained experience in long-term and dementia care, as well as outpatient care of older patients. In addition, Peggy has experience in community care, seeing people in their homes and in assisted-living facilities. She returned to Brigham and Women's in 2004 to join the Division of Aging, which oversees the Center for Older Adult Health.
“In the past 25 years, I have learned a great deal about the care of the older adult. I've had the opportunity to work with the best geriatricians and geriatric specialists. But the most rewarding and educational experiences have come from working with the older patients themselves and their families.
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