This doctor's mission is to empower home care aides. Here's how she does it.

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Dr. Madeline Sterling is a general internist and health services researcher. As an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, her research aims to improve the delivery of health care to adults with chronic conditions, focusing on home health care and empowering caregivers to home to improve patient care. She sat down with Jessica Abo to discuss her research and her advice for anyone looking to be a pioneer in their field.

Jessica Abo: Dr. Sterling, did you always know you wanted to pursue this field?

Dr. Madeline Sterling: I always knew I wanted to be a primary care physician. I love being a primary care physician and being able to relate to patients throughout their lives. I take care of their medical issues, but I also learn what really matters to them. What are their health values?

Tell us about your research and the course you developed for home healthcare workers.

Dr. Sterling: Many of the patients I care for rely on home caregivers to help them manage their chronic conditions. And a common condition they use home aids for is heart failure, which is a chronic cardiovascular disease where the heart doesn't pump blood well to the rest of the body. And we found that home health aides actually helped patients manage key aspects of their care, like monitoring their symptoms. And yet, there really isn't much research on who they are and what this workforce does. We've surveyed more than 800 home health aides over the past few years in New York City. And we found that more than half have never received training on this disease. So our team set out to design and test the first heart failure training course for this workforce. And we are currently in the middle of a clinical trial, which is testing the impact of this training on workers and their patients with VNS Health.

At the heart of everything you do is the desire to help people age in place. What exactly does this mean and why is it so difficult for our country?

Dr. Sterling: 75% of adults currently want to stay home. They want to grow old and be home and feel good and many don't want to go to a nursing home. And yet, our current healthcare system lacks the infrastructure to do so. We lack a long term care support system with caregivers.

What can we do about this problem?

Dr. Sterling: We need a better supported home care workforce and we need policies in place that can really allow them to thrive and value what they do for patient care.

Where do caregivers fit into all of this?

Dr. Sterling: Caregivers are so important. One in five adults are currently caring for loved ones at home. And right now they are overwhelmed. Not only are they managing their loved one's chronic illnesses, but they are also trying to find in-home caregivers for their family. And it's a huge burden. So we have a lot of work to do, especially as the baby boomer population continues to age rapidly.

And speaking of work, you do research in that area and that research grows. You just want a prestigious Doris Duke Prize, which is awarded annually to 16 early-career physician-scientists. How will you use your grant to advance your work?

Dr. Sterling: So far, we have focused on training home healthcare workers to help patients with certain chronic conditions. We are now focusing on improving the health of caregivers themselves. And I'm so excited about it. We've spoken with so many caregivers, and many of them have said they really struggle with managing their mood and stress. And so in this study with this funding from the foundation, we're actually going to be testing and rolling out a new health promotion program, which hopefully will improve the mental health of caregivers.

When you roll out this 10-week program, what are some of the things these caregivers will learn?

Dr. Sterling: They will learn how to deal with stressful situations at work. How to replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts, how to eat better and do more physical activity? And these are just a few. They will actually learn a whole health program.

Finally, Dr. Sterling, what advice do you have for other researchers trying to create new space in their field, given your own experience?

Dr. Sterling: I have three key tips. The first is to tackle important issues. ...