Featured Scholar: Kathleen Unroe, MD
Cornelius and Yvonne Pettinga Professor of Medicine
Professor of Medicine
Research Scientist, Indiana University Center for Aging Research
IU School of Medicine
Moving Towards Consistent, High-quality Nursing Home Experiences
Dr. Kathleen Unroe’s research, clinical, policy and entrepreneurial work is focused on improving quality of care and quality of life for people in nursing homes. She is the Cornelius and Yvonne Pettinga Professor of Medicine at Indiana University and a Scientist at the Regenstrief Institute Center for Aging Research. Dr. Unroe has garnered over $50 million in Federal research funding as a Principal Investigator, including leadership of projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She leads NEXT STEPs, an NIH funded U24 project to support clinical trials research in nursing homes in the United States. She is co-Principal Investigator of UPLIFT, a multi-state clinical trial to test a robust model of palliative care for nursing home residents. She is the co-PI of APPROACHES, a pragmatic clinical trial of advance care planning in nursing homes. She was principal investigator of OPTIMISTIC, a novel 8-year, $30.3 million CMS-funded demonstration project aimed at improving quality of care and reducing unnecessary hospitalizations in 40 Indiana nursing homes. The second phase of OPTIMISTIC tested payment reform that reimburses facilities for providing on-site treatment of qualifying conditions common in nursing home residents, including pneumonia, urinary tract infections, congestive heart failure, dehydration, skin ulcers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. Dr. Unroe served as Chair of the American Geriatrics Society Public Policy Committee. She was a 2009-2010 Health and Aging Policy Fellow and had a placement in Health and Human Services ASPE Office of Disability, Aging, and Long-Term Care Policy. Dr. Unroe is the founder, CEO, and Chief Medical Officer of Probari, a woman owned healthcare start-up designed to improve clinical care in nursing homes. Dr. Unroe received her BA in Latin Language and Literature at Miami University, her MD and MHA degrees from The Ohio State University and completed her internal medicine residency and Geriatric Fellowship training at Duke University Medical Center and the Durham VA.
Kathleen's translation of research focuses on interventions and models of care designed to improve quality in nursing homes and is another excellent example of how IU Indianapolis's faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.
Selected Publications in IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks
With nearly 100 scholarly works contributed to IU Indianapolis's free, open access repository, Kathleen has made translational research knowledge available to researchers, students and readers around the world.
Unroe, K. T., Ersek, M., Stump, T. E., Floyd, A., Nesvet, M., Block, L. V. den, Tu, W., & Cagle, J. G. (2026). Discordance in Ratings of Symptoms Experienced by Nursing Home Residents With Cognitive Impairment. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 71(3), 403-410.e4. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/54449
Hickman, S. E., Lum, H. D., & Unroe, K. T. (2026). Family Caregiver Perspectives on Advance Care Planning Discussions for Residents With Dementia Led by Trained Nursing Home Staff: Insights From the APPROACHES Project. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 27(5), 106154. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/54937
Chisholm, L., Hickman, S., Chou, W.-Y., & Unroe, K. T. (2026). Navigating Barriers and Enablers to Advance Care Planning for Residents Living With Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Nursing Homes: Strategies for Effective Implementation of the Goals of Care Video a Content Analysis. Sage Open Aging, 12, 30495334261436936. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/56047
Hickman, S. E., Miech, E. J., Stump, T. E., Tu, W., & Unroe, K. T. (2026). Difference-Makers for Robust Implementation of a Nursing Home Advance Care Planning Embedded Pragmatic Clinical Trial. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 74(3), 712–721. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/55053
Chi, E., Soliman, A., Hunold, K. M., Chiang, C.-W., Unroe, K. T., Nechi, R. N., Caterino, J. M., Li, L., Zhang, P., & Donneyong, M. (2026). Patterns of deprescribing after an emergency department visit due to adverse drug events among concomitant users of antithrombotics and other medications (p. 2026.07.20.26358502). medRxiv. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/57851
Boakye, A., Cagle, J., Tucker, G., Ersek, M., Floyd, A. C., Elftmann, H., Zhang, P., & Unroe, K. T. (2026). Family perceptions of palliative care consultations for nursing home residents. BMC Palliative Care, 25(1), 152.Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/56653
Abbott, K. M., Noble, M., Heid, A. R., Kotterman, A., Unroe, K. T., & Van Haitsma, K. (2026). Feasibility of Implementing the Individualized Positive Psychosocial Interaction (IPPI) Program in an Embedded Pragmatic Clinical Trial. Clinical Gerontologist, 49(4), 956–968. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/53206
Lassell, R. K. F., Carey, C. J., Sample, L., Elftmann, H., Gitlin, L. N., Harezlak, J., Holden, R. J., Pearson, A. L., Jordan, E., Keith, N., & Unroe, K. (2026). Which activity tracker features matter to you? Older Black participants living with memory challenges and care partner preferences. Innovation in Aging, 10(4), igag011. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/54663
Cagle, J. G., Stump, T. E., Tu, W., Ersek, M., Floyd, A., Van den Block, L., Zhang, P., Becker, T. D., & Unroe, K. T. (2025). A Psychometric Evaluation of the Staff-Reported EOLD-CAD Measure Among Nursing Home Residents With Cognitive Impairment. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 40(1), e70037. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/53702
Hickman, S., Stump, T., Evans, A., Tu, W., & Unroe, K. (2025). Outcomes of a Pragmatic Randomized Clinical Trial of an Advance Care Planning Program in Nursing Homes. Innovation in Aging, 9(Supplement_2), igaf122.155. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/53669
Find more free articles by Kathleen Unroe in IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks.