About INTERACT®
INTERACT® is an acronym for “Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers.” The interventions is a quality improvement program designed to improve the identification, evaluation, and communication about changes in resident status. INTERACT® was first designed in a project supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Now, many post-acute providers across the U.S. are using INTERACT®.
About Pathway Health
Pathway Health is a professional management, consulting, interim management, executive search and education services organization, serving clients across the post-acute care continuum. Since 1997, Pathway Health has been keeping a pulse on industry clinical, regulatory, quality and reimbursement trends to keep clients on the path to success. With over 150 experienced professionals, we engage and employ leading clinical and operational experts to assist our clients in achieving the next level of performance.
In 2016, Pathway Health entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Florida Atlantic University (FAU) to provide INTERACT® training, education, management, consulting services, including INTERACT™for Skilled Nursing Facilities, INTERACT™ 1.0 for Assisted Living and INTERACT™ 1.0 for Home Health. Under the terms of the agreement Pathway Health will also be sub-licensing the copyrighted INTERACT™ and INTERACT™ 1.0 systems to entities such as Electronic Health Record providers and other technologies that want to incorporate INTERACT® into their product offerings.
Visit pathwayhealth.com to learn more.
About FAU
Florida Atlantic University (FAU) measures it with every student who earns a degree, every researcher who makes a discovery and every community that is transformed.
At FAU’s dedication ceremony in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson challenged the University’s pioneers: “It is time now…for a new, adventurous, imaginative, courageous breakthrough for a new revolution in education in America.”
With those words, FAU opened its doors as the first public university in southeast Florida and the first in America designed for upper division students only. Since day one, FAU has pushed the bounds of higher education. Now, 50 years later, the University serves more than 30,000 freshmen, transfers and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida.
People from every walk of life find a place at FAU. Students choose from more than 180 degree programs, faculty researchers utilize more than 40 research centers and the community engages hundreds of cultural and educational events every year. Learn more.
The INTERACT® Project Team
Joseph G. Ouslander, M.D. – (Project Director for INTERACT® and Senior Medical Advisor for Pathway Health) – Dr. Ouslander is Professor and Associate Dean for Geriatric Programs at the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Chair of the Integrated Medical Science Department, and Courtesy Professor at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton Florida. Dr. Ouslander served as a Professor at UCLA for 15 years developing research, educational, and clinical programs. From 1996-2007 he served as the Director of Geriatric Medicine at Emory University. He is a past-President and Board Chair of the American Geriatrics Society, and serves as the Executive Editor of the society’s Journal. He is a co-author of Essentials of Clinical Geriatrics, and an editor of Hazzard’s Geriatric Medicine and Nursing Home Care.
Bernardo Reyes, M.D. – Dr. Reyes is an Assistant Professor at the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine Florida Atlantic University where he also serves as Assistant Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program. Dr. Reyes completed his fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at Harvard University, where he directed a hip fracture co-management service at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Reyes is an expert in fragility fractures and hip fracture management, as well as care transitions.
Jill Shutes, G.N.P. – Ms. Shutes is a geriatric nurse practitioner with over 25 years of nursing experience. She graduated from Rutgers College of Nursing with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing in 1987. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1997 with a Masters of Science in Nursing. She has extensive experience in post-acute and long-term care. She works at Florida Atlantic University as a Program Coordinator on projects with Dr. Ouslander in relationship to the INTERACT™ Quality Improvement Program. She is also Assistant Professor in the Doctoral Nursing Program for Palm Beach Atlantic University.
Gabriella Engstrom, R.N., Ph.D., is a visiting faculty member at the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. She previously served on the Faculty of Medicine at Uppsala University and Assistant Dean, Malarden University in Sweden. She has been the project coordinator for an NIH-supported implementation trial of the INTERACT™ Quality Improvement Program as well as on the STAR Quality Improvement Program, and has extensive experience and expertise in data collection and management.
Sanya Diaz, M.D., N.P. – Dr. Diaz received her Medical Doctor degree in 2002 from Universidad Mayor de San Andres in La Paz-Bolivia and her Nurse Practitioner degree from Florida International University. Currently she is a Research Associate for the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University where she assists with the quality improvement and research activities, including the INTERACT® and the STAR Quality Improvement Program.