Grant focuses on independence for seniors

The University of South Carolina and its research partners are responding to the challenge of making life easier for senior citizens at home or on the go -- or hopefully both.

A new state-funded Research Center of Economic Excellence, Senior SMART, will focus on multidisciplinary research to foster independence for seniors.

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"This is particularly important for South Carolina since we are in the top 10 in the nation for rate of growth for older adults," says Dr. Paul Eleazer, the center's director and a professor of internal medicine at the School of Medicine. "The main thing seniors want to do is stay independent, and the center is about teaching people that independence."

A $5 million award, to be matched by the Health Sciences South Carolina consortium, will fund research in three key areas: SHARP Brain, helping seniors maintain intellectual activity; SMART WHEELS, promoting mobility outside the home; and SMART HOME, helping maintain mobility inside the home.

The center encompasses not only the School of Medicine but also the College of Social Work, Arnold School of Public Health and College of Engineering and Computing. Other partners in the project include Clemson University and its Center for Automotive Research, Palmetto Health and the Greenville Hospital System.

"Researchers will take advantage of the University of South Carolina's engineering, social work and medical schools and will work to develop new ways of retrofitting residences so that the elderly can stay in their own homes longer and enjoy a better quality of life," Eleazer says.

The program provides an economic impact both in terms of additional research funding for the university but also in the creation of private spin-off companies that will bring additional jobs to the state. Economic impact is estimated at nearly $29 million over a five-year period.

"It will be especially important for the university and the School of Medicine to enhance our ability to get NIH-funded researchers, top-flight researchers," Eleazer says. "That's critical from a university perspective, because with the center come new programs, including graduate programs. It's particularly important to get NIH-level researchers."

Eleazer praises the state centers of economic excellence concept. "The intent of the legislation is to move us into the next phase with technology-based jobs that are high-paying," he says. "The purpose is to create jobs for South Carolinians.

"It's the continued shift from an agricultural economy to a manufacturing economy and now to a technology- and information-based economy. It's something we need, otherwise we'll be lagging behind the rest of the world."

For Eleazer, who is also the director of the Division of Geriatrics in the Department of Internal Medicine, the center is an exclamation point on a career devoted to serving senior citizens. "That's what I am, a geriatrician," he says. "I've spent my life taking care of older people."