Maria Yefimova (VA Scholar) is a registered nurse and Ph.D. candidate at the UCLA School of Nursing. After completing her undergraduate degree in nursing at UCLA, she continued in the accelerated BS-PhD program and received her en-route master’s degree with a focus in gerontological nursing. Ms. Yefimova expanded her expertise in aging-related issues with a graduate certificate from the USC School of Gerontology. Her clinical background is in community and home health nursing, working with ethnically-diverse geriatric patients in Los Angeles. Ms. Yefimova worked on multiple research projects ranging from exploring bio-behavioral markers in patients with dementia to modeling the effect of geriatric syndromes on the trajectories of emergency department readmissions. Her dissertation, “Using In-Home Monitoring Technology to Identify Deviations in Daily Routines Preceding Changes in Health Trajectory of Older Adults,” investigates activity patterns of older adults living in smart homes – apartments equipped with sensors – in relation to clinical events recorded in their electronic health records. Her work is conducted in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Career Interests: Ms. Yefimova strives to improve care of older adults by conducting multidisciplinary research on health technology, translating her findings into professional practice, and shaping public policy.

Research Interests: Ms. Yefimova plans to continue the evaluation of health-monitoring technology to support community-dwelling older adults in managing their multiple chronic conditions. She is also interested in translational, systems and policy issues in implementing these technologies to improve healthcare delivery and reduce long term care costs for the growing aging population.