Leo M. Cooney, Jr., M.D.

• Humana Foundation Professor of Geriatric Medicine
• Professor and Chief Section of Geriatrics
  
  

Research Interests

Dr. Leo Cooney established the program in Geriatrics at Yale, coming to this institution in 1976 as the Director of the Continuing Care Unit. This unit is now known as the Yale Acute Care for the Elderly Unit . His career at Yale has focused on assisting elderly individuals to attain the highest level of independence possible. His research interests have focused on efforts to ensure that health care resources are applied to those in most need. Along with Dr. Brandt Fries, he developed the Resource Utilization Groups, which is now used as the method of reimbursing Medicare patients in nursing homes throughout the country. He directs the utilization review efforts at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and is a past President of the American Geriatrics Society. He continues to have a very active clinical and teaching role to ensure that medical residents and students are as prepared as possible to care for the multiple problems of the frail elderly.

Selected Publications

1. Cooney LM. A strategy for geriatric teaching. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Vol. 31, No. 3, March 1983.
2. Fries BE, Cooney LM. Resource utilization groups: a patient classification system for long-term care. Medical Care. February 1985.
3. Cooney LM, Fries BE. Validation and use of resource utilization groups as a case-mix measure for long-term care. Medical Care. February 1985.
4. Bonar SK, Tinetti ME, Speechley M, Cooney LM. Factors associated with short- versus long-term skilled nursing facility placement among community-living hip fracture patients. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Vol. 38:1139-1144, 1990.
5. Marottoli RA, Berkman LS, Cooney LM. Decline in Physical Function Following Hip Fracture. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 40:861-866, Sept. 1992.
6. Drickamer M, Cooney LM. A Geriatrician's Guide to Enteral Feeding. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 41:672-679, July 1993.
7. Inouye SK, Acampora D, Miller RL, Fulmer R, Hurst LD, Cooney LM. The Yale Geriatric Care Program: A Model of Care to Prevent Functional Decline in Hospitalized Elderly Patients. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 1993. 41:1345-52.
8. Marottoli RA, Berkman LF, Leo-Summers L, Cooney LM. Predictors of Mortality and Institutionalization After Hip Fracture: The New Haven EPESE Cohort. Am J Public Health. 1994. 84:1807-112.
9. Daigneault J, Cooney LM. Shoulder Pain in Older People. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 1998. 46:1144-1151.
10. Inouye S, Bogardus S, Charpentier P, Leo-Summers L, Acampora D, Holford TR, Cooney LM. A Clinical Trial of a Multicomponent Intervention to Prevent Delirium in Hospitalized Older Patients. The New England Journal Of Medicine. 340:9, 669-675, 1999.
11. Inouye SK , Bogardus ST , Baker DI, Leo-SummersL, Cooney LM. The hospital Elderly Life Program: a model of care to prevent cognitive and functional decline in hospitalized elderly patients. J Am Geriatrics Soc. 2000.48:1697-1706.
12. Cooney LM, Kennedy GJ, Hawkins KA. Who can stay at home? Assessing the capacity to choose to live in the community. Arch Int Med 2004;164:357-360.