Christopher M. Callahan, MD

Contact : ccallaha@iu.edu

We – both clinicians and patients – can do a better job of preventing harm and maintaining the brain as it ages.

Initiatives

Research Scientist, Indiana University Center for Aging Research at Regenstrief Institute
Professor of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine
Chief Research and Development Officer, Eskenazi Health

Dr. Chris Callahan has 30 years of experience in studying clinical interventions and new models of care designed to improve outcomes for older adults. His work began with a focus on late life depression and dementia and developed into research on multi-morbidity and the role of social determinants of health.

Dr. Callahan’s research experience also includes the use of large clinical and survey research databases (including the Health and Retirement Study), as well as Medicare and Medicaid claims data, to conduct clinical epidemiologic studies. He has used these observational data to design and conduct randomized controlled clinical trials of complex interventions and has translated these interventions into real-world programs. He has focused particularly on vulnerable elders who are typically low-income, minority, disabled, and dual-eligible.

Over the past seven years and through his leadership roles at Eskenazi Health, his interventions increasingly focus on patients across the lifespan and among communities facing health disparities due to poverty and other social barriers to health care. Through this process he incrementally began targeting social as well as medical problems and increasingly deepened Regenstrief’s partnership with family caregivers and the local community. He is the former director of the Center for Aging Research, which is in its 25th year of operation. In addition, he has a long track record of successful mentoring relationships including mentoring 10 prior or current MD and PhD faculty on federally-funded career development awards.

Featured Projects

NIA IMPACT Collaboratory

(U54- NIA) (2019-2024)

Role: Training Core Co-Lead

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) IMbedded Pragmatic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Collaboratory serves as a national resource for the conduct of ePCTs to improve the care of PLWD in partnership with the healthcare systems that serve them.

Social Determinants of Health

(Eskenazi Health Foundation) (2019-present)

Role: Principal Investigator

Eskenazi Health and its philanthropic and community partners have invested in a systematic expansion of efforts to integrate medical care with social care. This project builds the organizational, environmental and technological foundation for this work.

Regenstrief Center for Health Equity Research (RCHER)

Regenstrief Foundation (2024-2028)

This project will grow the research, medical informatics and data analytic capacity to conduct health equity interventions research at Eskenazi Health.

Highlighted Publications

Aug 1994

Longitudinal study of depression and health services use among elderly primary care patients

Publication: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.1994.tb06554.x

Authors: Callahan CM, Hui SL, Nienaber NA, Musick BS, Tierney WM

Aug 1994

Improving treatment of late life depression in primary care: a randomized clinical trial

Publication: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1994.tb06555.x

Authors: Callahan CM, Hendrie HC, Dittus RS, Brater DC, Hui SL, Tierney WM

Dec 11, 2002

Collaborative care management of late-life depression in the primary care setting: a randomized controlled trial

Publication: JAMA

DOI: 10.1001/jama.288.22.2836

Authors: Unützer J, Katon W, Callahan CM, Williams JW Jr, Hunkeler E, Harpole L, Hoffing M, Della Penna RD, Noël PH, Lin EH, Areán PA, Hegel MT, Tang L, Belin TR, Oishi S, Langston C

Mar 2005

Treatment of depression improves physical functioning in older adults

Publication: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2005.53151.x

Authors: Callahan CM, Kroenke K, Counsell SR, Hendrie HC, Perkins AJ, Katon W, Noel PH, Harpole L, Hunkeler EM, Unützer J

May 10, 2006

Effectiveness of collaborative care for older adults with Alzheimer disease in primary care: a randomized controlled trial

Publication: JAMA

DOI: 10.1001/jama.295.18.2148

Authors: Callahan CM, Boustani MA, Unverzagt FW, Austrom MG, Damush TM, Perkins AJ, Fultz BA, Hui SL, Counsell SR, Hendrie HC

May 2012

Transitions in care for older adults with and without dementia

Publication: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2012.03905.x

Authors: Callahan CM, Arling G, Tu W, Rosenman MB, Counsell SR, Stump TE, Hendrie HC

Feb 7, 2017

Targeting Functional Decline in Alzheimer Disease: A Randomized Trial

Publication: Annals of Internal Medicine

DOI: 10.7326/M16-0830

Authors: Callahan CM, Boustani MA, Schmid AA, LaMantia MA, Austrom MG, Miller DK, Gao S, Ferguson DY, Lane KA, Hendrie HC

Jun 2017

Adherence and Tolerability of Alzheimer's Disease Medications: A Pragmatic Randomized Trial

Publication: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

DOI: 10.1111/jgs.14827

Authors: Campbell NL, Perkins AJ, Gao S, Skaar TC, Li L, Hendrie HC, Fowler N, Callahan CM, Boustani MA

May 2012

Transitions in care for older adults with and without dementia

Publication: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2012.03905.x

Authors: Callahan CM, Arling G, Tu W, Rosenman MB, Counsell SR, Stump TE, Hendrie HC

Jun 2020

Novel Markers of Angiogenesis in the Setting of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

Publication: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease: JAD

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-191293

Authors: Callahan CM, Apostolova LG, Gao S, Risacher SL, Case J, Saykin AJ, Lane KA, Swinford CG, Yoder MC

Oct 1, 2021

Moving Toward Fully Blended Collaborative Care: Integrating Medical and Social Care

Publication: JAMA Internal Medicine

DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.4993

Authors: Callahan CM

Jun 2021

Multicomponent behavioral intervention to reduce exposure to anticholinergics in primary care older adults

Publication: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

doi: 10.1111/jgs.17121

Authors: Campbell NL, Holden RJ, Tang Q, Boustani MA, Teal E, Hillstrom J, Tu W, Clark DO, Callahan CM

In The News

Influence

Featured Fellowship

People

VideoDr. Weiner: Patients and doctors can collaborate to improve medical records

NewsStudy finds that issues patients raise during medical appointments often don’t appear in their medical records

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VideoDr. Boustani: Importance of early detection of cognitive impairment

VideoDr. Kroenke: Why should traumatic brain injury be a chronic condition?

Study finds that issues patients raise during...

Christopher M. Callahan, MD

Featured Projects

Highlighted Publications