About The Author

Dr. Atul Sunny Luthra

Research focus: Developing safe pharmacological and affordable non-pharmacological treatment interventions for behaviors in moderate to advanced dementia/neurocognitive disorder (D/NCD)

Credentials

MD, MSc. (Pharmacology), FRCPC (Fellow of Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons)

Affiliations

• McMaster University (Hamilton, ON, Canada)
  • Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience

• Research Institute for Aging (Waterloo, ON, Canada)
  • Research Scientist, Schlegel-University of Waterloo

• Homewood Health Centre (Guelph, ON, Canada)
  • Medical Director, Program for Older Adults

• Hamilton Health Sciences (Hamilton, ON, Canada)
  • Medical Coordinator, Behavioral Health Program, St. Peter’s Hospital

Dr. Atul Sunny Luthra is presently an associate clinical professor at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences. He is also affiliated as a research scientist with the Research Institute for Aging, Schlegel, University of Waterloo, Ontario. He is currently working in the capacity of medical coordinator in the Program for Older Adults at Homewood Health Centre in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He is also affiliated in the same capacity with the St. Peter’s site of Hamilton Health Science in Hamilton, Ontario. His clinical and research focus is on developing safe pharmacological and affordable non-pharmacological treatment interventions for behaviors in moderate to advanced dementia 

Professional Organizations

1. President of the Dalhousie Resident Psychiatric Association – 1991 – 1992
2. Affiliate Member of the Nova Scotia Medical Society
3. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCPC)
4. Member of the Ontario Medical Association and Canadian Medical Association
5. Member of the Ontario Psychiatric Association and Canadian Psychiatric Association
6. Member of the Hamilton Medico-Legal Society
7. Member of the Canadian Academy of Geriatric Psychiatry
8. Member of the Canadian Geriatric Society
9. Member of the American Society on Aging
10. Member of the American Geriatrics Society
11. Member of the New England Psychological Association

Areas of Interest

Teaching:

I act in the capacity of clinical supervisor for medical students at McMaster University for the core psychiatry rotation.  As of 2011, I have started to supervise medical students through the ‘Rural Ontario Medical Program’.  I supervise postgraduate students in Psychiatry and Geriatric Medicine as well as Care of the Elderly Fellows from the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University.

I have also worked in the capacity of Research Supervisor for the University of Waterloo students from 2007 to the present.  Undergraduate students in their final year are placed with me for a period of 4 months, each year, to gain research experience.  This is done in collaboration with the Murray Alzheimer’s Research and Education Program (MAREP) initiative, a subsidiary of the Research Institute in Aging (RIA) at the University of Waterloo. I have been in the supervisory role from 2007 to the present.

Interests include: Educating health care providers and physicians associated with LTC facilities and in the community in order to develop efficient and comprehensive systems of service delivery for management of behaviors in dementia/NCD.

Research:

I am focused on the development of a biopsychosocial (BPS) model and a new classification system as a basis for understanding behaviors in dementia/major neurocognitive disorder (D/NCD). The primary goal of this approach to classification is to understand the ‘meaning’ of behaviors in D/NCD.  All of these constructs were put in a book format and published by Common Ground Publishing in 2014.

The behavioral categories arising from the new classification paradigm have been incorporated into a new behavioral assessment tool titled the LuBAIR scale (Luthra’s Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Response).  A clinical study to evaluate the reliability and validity of the LuBAIR scale has been completed.  Data has been evaluated and the manuscript has been submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.  Guidelines for utilization of this new tool have been developed including workbooks for implementation in clinical practice.  All of these principles have been put into a clinical handbook format.  It will be submitted to the publishing companies in the very near future.  The final step in the implementation of these clinical constructs study will be to assist in the generation of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment algorithms for the behaviors in patients with D/NCD.