Invited Speakers
  • Una Makris
    UT Southwestern Medical Center​
    USA
  • Dr. Makris is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Rheumatic Diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center and a clinical investigator at the VA North Texas Health Care System. As a clinically trained rheumatologist, with a research focus on aging, she is well positioned to investigate important questions that bridge the fields of rheumatology and geriatrics. She completed her Rheumatology training and a post-doctoral training in Geriatric Clinical Epidemiology and Aging-Related Research at Yale University. Her early research focused on questions related to the epidemiology of back pain in older adults: its clinical course, risk factors and impact. She extended this work to include mixed-methods (combining quantitative and qualitative methods) to better understand the impact of back pain in older persons. Her current research focuses on developing and evaluating a novel health coach, telephone-delivered intervention that targets behavioral determinants for both pain and depressive symptoms in older adults. Her goal is to ultimately improve outcomes in this medically complex older population by developing safe, effective, and accessible interventions that shift the focus from pharmacological therapies to behavioral (physical activity) interventions. Her research has been funded continuously since 2010 by NIA (GEMSSTAR R03 and Roybal P30 pilot), NCCIH, VA (HSRD CDA2 and IIR), PCORI, and Rheumatology Research Foundation.

    She has spent the last 15 years focused on integrating geriatrics into rheumatology research, clinics, and education. Dr. Makris is passionate about career development and mentorship, especially for specialists in aging research and inter-professional collaborators (including clinical psychology, PT, PharmD). She serves as the co-chair for the Medical and Surgical Specialties section at American Geriatrics Society since 2017 and has invested considerable effort to promote visibility of aging principles in rheumatology and other specialty fields. She leads mentoring programs at UTSW for the Rheumatology Fellowship as well as for the Department of Medicine Faculty (over 500 clinical faculty spanning various career tracks and pathways).

    I am passionate about career development and mentorship, especially for specialists in aging research and inter-professional collaborators (including clinical psychology, PT, PharmD). Within the Rheumatology community, I served on the ACR Early Stage Investigator committee that launched a successful national inter-institutional mentoring program for adult rheumatologists in 2018. I serve as the co-chair for the Medical Specialties section at American Geriatrics Society since 2017 and have invested considerable effort to promote visibility of aging principles in rheumatology and other specialty fields. I have mentored MSTAR students, residents pursuing careers in both rheumatology and geriatrics, as well as junior faculty (for example, in Rheumatology (Dr. Singh, recent GEMSSTAR R03 awardee, Dr. Lee, recent NIA K23 awardee), in Neurosurgery/ Spine Surgery (Dr. Adogwa, Clin-STAR pilot awardee). I lead mentoring programs at UTSW for the Rheumatology Fellowship as well as for the Department of Medicine Faculty (over 500 clinical faculty spanning various career tracks and pathways).

    As a Rheumatologist with clinical expertise in managing rheumatic diseases in older adults, research expertise in health services, outcomes (including mixed methods and specifically qualitative studies that inform intervention development), and aging I am well-qualified to serve as a mentor in this area. I look forward to contributing my expertise and I am delighted to collaborate with the xxx leadership and other mentors similarly passionate about training the next generation of translational and health services investigators.
    Research & Clinical Focus

    Aging

    Musculoskeletal pain

    Multicomplexity

    Behavioral interventions

    • Date Time Room Session Title Lecture Title
    May 16 13:30-14:00 Room 1 (3F) International Symposium 3_Geriatrics in Rheumatology: How to Optimize the Treatment for Aging Patients Essential considerations for treating older rheumatology patients