Linda Gerber, Ph.D., Epidemiologist, is Director of the Biostatistics and Research Methodology Core and Professor of Public Health in the Department of Public Health. She is also Professor of Epidemiology in Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Gerber is a national expert in hypertension research who has investigated the relationship between psychological characteristics and responses to antihypertensive drug therapy, as well as the role of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and behavioral and genetic factors on diurnal blood pressure patterns. Dr. Gerber has collaborated as an epidemiologist and medical anthropologist in a variety of clinical epidemiological research projects. In particular, she was the Principal Investigator on the Neighborhood Study, a National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)-funded study which investigated the relationship of ethnicity, socioeconomic status and sleep patterns on diurnal blood pressure rhythms.

Currently, Dr. Penny Feldman (of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York) and Dr. Gerber are collaborating on a major study funded by the NHLBI to improve hypertension management and blood pressure control in an African American home care population. Dr. Gerber has also been awarded Task Order Number 13, titled "Effect of the Patient Activation Measure (PAM) on Chronic Care" as part of the Integrated Delivery System Research Network of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. This task order explores whether a PAM-driven intervention increases patients? knowledge and self-management behaviors and whether this intervention improves the blood pressure levels of hypertension patients. The research team has developed a ?change package? of evidence-based hypertension management strategies geared to patients scoring at the four different stages of activation on the Patient Activation Measure. Groups have been randomly assigned in a managed long-term care plan to intervention or control status and care managers on the intervention teams have been trained to use the change package in conjunction with a patient?s PAM score to design ? with the involvement of the patient ? an individualized hypertension management plan. The impact of the intervention on patient activation and outcomes are being assessed.