
Hillary Lum, MD, PhD, conducts patient-centered outcomes research to improve advance care planning and dementia care for older adults and their family care partners. She is a geriatrician, palliative medicine physician, and Associate Professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO. Her goals are to conduct high-quality research that improves quality of care for older adults and their family members, and leads to beneficial changes in healthcare system, local, state and national policies. Her research focuses on an innovative Advance Care Planning Group Medical Visit as a model of studying how to develop and implement real-world interventions for engaging older adults in advance care planning, as well as testing dementia models of care. As a Health and Aging Policy Fellow, she was placed at the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which administers Colorado Medicaid. She focused on identifying meaningful and measurable quality indicators for older adults across several state government services as part of The Colorado Opportunity Project. Her mentor was Dr. Judy Zerzan (HAPF alumna). In 2021, she was selected as an NIA IMPACT Collaboratory Health Care System Scholar. As of 2024, she leads the CMS GUIDE Dementia Program at CU Medicine to serve individuals with dementia at UCHealth.
Why I Applied to be a Fellow
"My Fellowship opportunity exponentially expanded my learning and experience in how to engage in health policy reform for older adults in meaningful ways. Now, years later, I believe I play my 'same' academic geriatric role in a significantly improved and hopefully more thoughtful and influential way."
Program Info
Program Track
Non-Residential
Placement
Colorado Medicaid/Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)