Rachel B. Chalmer, M.D.

Dr. Chalmer completed medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina, where she was elected to the Gold Humanism Honor Society. She was also awarded the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Student Award and the Hiram B. Curry Humanitarian Award. During medical school, Dr. Chalmer became certified as a Spanish medical interpreter.

Dr. Chalmer completed the Montefiore-Einstein Residency Program in Social Internal Medicine where she received the Leo M. Davidoff Society Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Medical Students.

From 2011-2016, Dr. Chalmer was an Attending Physician in the CMO-Montefiore Medical House Calls Program, where she served as Associate Medical Director. During these years, Dr. Chalmer also became Einstein faculty (Instructor 2013-2015, Assistant Professor 2015-2016). She taught and mentored medical students as Small Group Facilitator for Introduction to Clinical Medicine; Research Elective Mentor; and Community Preceptor for the Geriatrics Clerkship. She also precepted Montefiore residents in Home-Based Primary Care. In 2013, Dr. Chalmer was recognized by the Geriatrics Division with a Geriatrics Mentor Award.

From 2016-2017, Dr. Chalmer returned to training at Montefiore, completing a Fellowship and Board Certification in Geriatric Medicine.

She rejoined the Einstein faculty as an Assistant Professor in Geriatrics in 2017. Since then, her primary clinical practice is Comprehensive Geriatric Assessments for patients of the Montefiore-Einstein Center for the Aging Brain. She is funded by a Geriatric Academic Career Award (HRSA K01HP33882) from 2019-2023 for career development as a clinician educator in Geriatrics. She serves as Lead Study Physician for Dr. Joe Verghese's NIH-funded randomized clinical trial, the 5-Cog Paradigm to Improve Detection of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (UG3NS105565). And she is faculty in Montefiore's Center for Excellence in Alzheimer's Disease (CEAD), funded by the New York State Department of Health.

Dr. Chalmer is core faculty for Internal Medicine and Family Medicine residents rotating through Geriatrics. She taught 3rd year Einstein students in the Geriatric Clerkship, receiving a Teaching Star Commendation in 2019. She has mentored, and continues to mentor, multiple students, residents, and fellows in research projects, several of which have won awards at national meetings.

Chalmer R, Ayers E, Weiss EF, Malik R, Ehrlich A, Wang C, Zwerling J, Ansari A, Possin KL, Verghese J. The 5-Cog paradigm to improve detection of cognitive impairment and dementia: clinical trial protocol. Neurodegener Dis Manag. 2022 Aug;12(4):171-184. doi: 10.2217/nmt-2021-0043. Epub 2022 May 23. PMID: 35603666; PMCID: PMC9245592.

Bernstein Sideman A, Chalmer R, Ayers E, Gershon R, Verghese J, Wolf M, Ansari A, Arvanitis M, Bui N, Chen P, Chodos A, Corriveau R, Curtis L, Ehrlich AR, Tomaszewski Farias SE, Goode C, Hill-Sakurai L, Nowinski CJ, Premkumar M, Rankin KP, Ritchie CS, Tsoy E, Weiss E, Possin KL. Lessons from Detecting Cognitive Impairment Including Dementia (DetectCID) in Primary Care. J Alzheimers Dis. 2022;86(2):655-665. doi: 10.3233/JAD-215106. PMID: 35124639; PMCID: PMC9048609.