Geriatric and Palliative Medicine Grand Rounds - Thomas E. Edes, MD, MS

Thomas E. Edes, MD, MS, is Executive Director of Geriatrics and Extended Care, for Clinical Operations for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  He has national responsibility for operations and management of VA’s spectrum of Geriatrics & Extended Care services, providing care to our nation’s Veterans with complex, chronic disabling diseases.  Under his leadership since 2000, the number of Veterans receiving Home Based Primary Care has quadrupled, palliative care has become an established program in every VA medical center, and Medical Foster Home has grown from a pilot to a national program in 45 states and growing.  Through his longstanding interests in Home Based Primary Care and analyses of its clinical effectiveness and economic advantages, he has been actively involved in the development of Independence at Home, a component of the Affordable Care Act that began as a Medicare Demonstration of Home Based Primary Care in 2012, providing comprehensive, interdisciplinary, longitudinal care in the homes of persons with serious chronic disabling disease. Prior to taking his current position, Dr. Edes was Chief of Geriatrics and Extended Care at the Harry S Truman Memorial VA Medical Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri in Columbia.  There he was instrumental in developing Geriatric Evaluation and Management inpatient and outpatient programs, Subacute Care and Hospice units, a Geriatric Fellowship program, and the Advanced Disease Planning initiative.  He was Medical Director of the VA Nursing Home Care Unit and the Home Based Primary Care program.  Dr. Edes served as Associate Director of the 1995 White House Conference on Aging Office, and served for the Secretary on the Policy Committee for the 2005 White House Conference on Aging.  He was instrumental in the VA End of Life Care initiative, and was a project manager for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement MediCaring collaborative on improving care for persons with advanced chronic disease.  His research interests included clinical nutrition, cancer detection and prevention, enhancing outcomes in home care, end of life care, and improving care for persons with chronic disabling disease. Dr. Edes received his MD degree and MS degree in Nutrition from the University of Illinois in 1981. He holds board certification in Internal Medicine and in Geriatric Medicine, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Nutrition. In 2010, Dr. Edes was elected as President of the American Academy of Home Care Physicians.