James G. O'Brien, MD

James G. O’Brien, MD, is Professor and the Margaret Dorward Smock Endowed Chair in Geriatrics, as well as Chairman of the Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. A native of Ireland, he did his undergraduate and medical training at the University College in Dublin. Dr. O’Brien completed his graduate medical training at the Saginaw Cooperative Hospitals. Fellowship training at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. His many administrative posts at Michigan State University included Acting Chair in the Department of Family Medicine and Acting Associate Dean for Graduate Programs, College of Human Medicine. He is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the American Geriatrics Society and was given the 2006 “Champion for the Aging Award” by ElderServe, Inc. of Louisville, Kentucky. He is also a 2005 inductee into the Arnold P. Gold Honors Society for Humanism in Medicine. Since 2003, he has served on the Governor’s Task Force on Abuse & Neglect of Elderly for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Dr. O’Brien was editor of a 1999 issue of the Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect titled Self-Neglect: Challenges for Helping Professionals and in addition was primary author or co-author of three of the articles. He has over 50 publications in peer reviewed journals, 2 textbooks, 13 chapters and serves on the Editorial Board of Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect. His invited editorial, “A New Approach to Elder Abuse in Ireland ‘Protecting Our Future’”, appeared in a 2003 issue of the Irish Medical Journal. He has multiple presentations at national and international meetings including the keynote address, “Self-Neglect in the Elderly: Ethical Issues,” to the Special Interest Group on Medical Ethics, British Geriatrics Society, in 1999 and to the 3^rd Congress of the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society, Vienna, Austria, in 2004 on Self Neglect in the Elderly.

Dr. O'Brien's primary research interests are the study of self-neglect in old age, delirium and polypharmacy. He has received over $2.5 million in external funding. Dr. O'Brien's personal interests include soccer, reading, travel and history.