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BIOGRAPHY
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Richard J. Ham, MD
Director, West Virginia University Center on Aging Professor of Geriatric Medicine West Virginia University College of Medicine Morgantown, West Virginia |
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Richard J. Ham, M.D. is Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Psychiatry and was appointed Director of the West Virginia University (WVU) Center on Aging and at West Virginia University College of Medicine in Morgantown in 2002. He currently focuses on special issues of the rural elderly and on Alzheimer’s and related conditions, especially clinically early symptoms and signs, earlier diagnosis, the patient’s quality of life and caregiver empowerment through education. Dr Ham is a principal author of the WVU Center on Aging’s latest report, “Best Practices in Service Delivery to the Rural Elderly,” prepared for the 2003 federal Administration on Aging’s report to Congress. Dr Ham is a 1969 graduate of University College Hospital School of Medicine, University of London, England, with medical postgraduate training in family medicine, and a year in geriatric medicine and psychiatry, at the Isle of Wight Group Hospitals in the United Kingdom. After spending more than three years in family practice in England, he was recruited to the United States in 1977 by Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. From 1982 to 1984 he was Associate Professor at the University of South Florida, followed by 2 years as the Mount Pleasant Legion Professor of Community Geriatrics at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver BC, Canada. In 1987, Dr Ham became the first to hold the Distinguished Chair in Geriatric Medicine at SUNY Upstate in Syracuse, New York, where he stayed for 15 years, creating a 14-county referral program for the diagnosis and management of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as developing geriatric, clinical, and educational services in home, office, hospital, and longterm care settings. A member of the Board of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) since 1981, Dr Ham also served as President in 1988, and as Chairman of the Board from 1989 to 1990. In 1983, he co-authored the original American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) curricular guidelines on aging for family practice residents. From 1986 to 1988 he served on the first Test Committee for the CAQ in geriatric medicine. In 1995, Dr Ham was honored by the AGS with the Milo Leavitt Award for his contributions to geriatric education. A Fellow of the AGS, AAFP and GSA, he has been consistently listed in Best Doctors in America and Who’s Who in Medicine since 1992. He has published and presented widely in geriatric medicine. His publications include five textbooks; “Primary Care Geriatrics: A Case-based Approach“(Mosby, Harcourt), is now in its fourth edition (2002). |
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