The following information was originally posted on the Indiana University School of Medicine website.
A distinguished long-term care and palliative care practitioner and researcher now holds a celebrated endowed professorship in the Department of Medicine.
Kathleen Unroe, M.D., MHA, M.S., was recently named the Cornelius and Yvonne Pettinga Professor of Medicine within the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. The title is awarded to a faculty member who engages in educational, research and clinical care efforts related to aging.
Dr. Unroe’s work focuses on improving the quality of care for those living in nursing homes. In addition to her faculty appointment at IU School of Medicine, she holds investigative roles within the IU Center for Aging Research at Regenstrief Institute.
Dr. Unroe is co-chairing the 2026 State of the Science palliative care meeting, supported by the American Academy of Palliative Medicine and the Hospice and Palliative Care Nurses Association. She also serves on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services technical expert panel for the nursing home star rating system. She has chaired the American Geriatrics Society’s Public Policy Committee, and she was previously a fellow in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy.
Dr. Unroe leads the NIH-funded Nursing Home Explanatory Trials Network: Supporting Transformation by Enhancing Partnerships, or NEXT STEPs Network, with a goal to increase the number of high-quality clinical trials conducted in the nursing home setting. Dr. Unroe recently hosted 50 researchers from across the country in Indianapolis to discuss setting a national agenda for nursing home research.
She has led multiple federally-funded projects, including UPLIFT-AD, or Utilizing Palliative Care Leaders In Facilities to Transform care for Alzheimer’s Disease, a clinical trial in 16 nursing homes; and OPTIMISTIC, or Optimizing Patient Transfers, Impacting Medical Quality and Improving Symptoms: Transforming Institutional Care, a clinical demonstration project that involved 40 nursing homes in Indiana. A paper describing OPTIMISTIC was named one of the 20 most impactful geriatric studies of the 21st century by the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Dr. Unroe and her colleagues founded a private business, Probari, to continue the work of the OPTIMISTIC project.
Established in 1998, the Cornelius and Yvonne Pettinga Chair in Aging Research was the first aging-research endowed chairpersonship at IU School of Medicine, said Greg Sachs, M.D., the division chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics and Regenstrief research scientist.
Holding the title is a prestigious honor, one the division is excited to bestow upon Dr. Unroe, he said.
“Dr. Unroe is one of the leading researchers in the country in both nursing home care and palliative care,” said Dr. Sachs. “She has been improving care delivery and policy through her research and her innovative health care technology company. In addition, she is now leading national consortia in both nursing home research and palliative care research that will further transform care.
“The Pettinga chair is both a recognition of Dr. Unroe’s accomplishments to date and an opportunity to provide additional resources to further accelerate her research,” Sachs said.
Dr. Unroe said it is a privilege to now be part of the legacy of the Pettinga chair.
“This chair has been held by Dr. Chris Callahan and Dr. Susan Hickman, both mentors and colleagues whose careers and personal attributes I admire,” said Dr. Unroe. “It is truly an honor to receive this, and I appreciate the opportunity to expand and deepen the impact of my work to improve care for people living in nursing homes.”
Chris Callahan, M.D., is a Regenstrief research scientist in IUCAR, and Susan Hickman, PhD, is the Senior Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and a former Regenstrief research scientist also in IUCAR.
Dr. Unroe earned her medical degree from The Ohio State University before completing an internal medicine residency at Duke University Medical Center. She completed a fellowship in geriatric medicine at Duke, as well.
Working with elderly patients and improving their long-term care has been a passion of Dr. Unroe’s since she was young.
“I started volunteering in nursing homes when I was a kid and have always been drawn to this population and setting of care,” said Dr. Unroe. “I love being a geriatrician. Anyone who has worked or received care in nursing homes, however, sees opportunities where we could collectively do better. I am dedicating my career to supporting people who live and work in nursing homes.”
Dr. Unroe’s UPLIFT project — which she co-leads with John Cagle, PhD, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work — is a large-scale, multi-state clinical trial to test a clinical model of palliative care in nursing homes.
The OPTIMISTIC project aimed to improve quality of care by reducing unnecessary hospitalizations in 40 Indiana nursing homes by embedding nurses and nurse practitioners in care facilities to provide direct care to long-term residents.
The clinical care model successfully reduced unnecessary hospitalizations by one third, reduced unnecessary medications, and helped teams better clarify care goals.
Probari, the private business she founded with colleagues, continues this work. Probari nurses are currently providing virtual reviews of nursing home care in facilities across Indiana.
