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Cynthia Melinda Boyd, M.D., M.P.H.

Headshot of Cynthia Melinda Boyd
  • Professor of Medicine
Female

Expertise

Chronic Disease Management, Cognitive Decline in Older Adults, General Internal Medicine, Geriatric Consultation and Preventative Health, Geriatric Medicine, Prevention of Frailty, Primary Care of Older Adults ...read more

Research Interests

Older People; Multiple Chronic Conditions; Functional Recovery; Chronic Disease Care; Quality of Life; Polypharmacy; Deprescribing; Cognitive Decline ...read more

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Maryland Phone

410-550-0925

Outside of Maryland

410-464-6641
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+1-410-502-7683
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Locations

Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center

Appointment Phone: 410-550-0925
5200 Eastern Ave.
The Center for Transformative Geriatric Research, Mason F. Lord Building, Center Tower, Floor 7
Baltimore, MD 21224 map
Phone: 410-550-8676 | Fax: 410-550-8701

Background

Dr. Cynthia Boyd is Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Effective July 1, 2020, Dr. Boyd is the Interim Director, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. She holds a joint appointment in Health Policy and Management and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Boyd is a core faculty member at the Center for Transformative Geriatric Research, Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health and the Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care.

A former Robert Wood Johnson Physician Faculty Scholar, Dr. Boyd is trained in internal medicine, geriatric medicine and epidemiology. Dr. Boyd’s main interests include improving the health and well being of older adults with multiple chronic conditions and their loved ones.

She earned her M.D. from the Duke University School of Medicine and her M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed her residency at Johns Hopkins and performed a fellowship in geriatric medicine and gerontology at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Boyd has been recognized with several honors, including the American Geriatric Society’s Outstanding Scientific Achievement for Clinical Investigation Award, and Fellowship in the American College of Physicians and the American Geriatric Society.  Her research has been funded by the NIH, AHRQ, PCORI, and foundations. 

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Titles

  • Professor of Medicine

Departments / Divisions

Centers & Institutes

Education

Degrees

  • MD; Medicine; Duke University School of Medicine (1997)

Residencies

  • Medicine; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (2000)

Fellowships

  • Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology; Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center (2002)

Board Certifications

  • American Board of Internal Medicine (Geriatric Medicine) (2002)

Research & Publications

Selected Publications

Peer Reviewed Original Science Publications

1. Wolff J, Rand-Giovannetti E, Boyd CM, Reider L, Palmer S, Scharfstein D, Marsteller J, Wegener S, Frey K, Leff B, Frick K, Boult C. Effects of Guided Care on Family Caregivers. The Gerontologist. 2010 Aug;50(4):459-70.

2. Boyd CM, Reider L, Frey K, Scharfstein D, Leff B, Wolff J, Groves C, Karm L, Wegener S, Marsteller J, Boult C. The Effects of Guided Care on the Perceived Quality of Health Care for Multi-morbid Older Persons: 18 month Outcomes from A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of General Internal Medicine. March 2010 25(3):235-42.

3. Blaum CS, Cigolle CT, Boyd CM, Wolff JL, Tian Z, Langa K, and Weir DR. Clinical Complexity in Middle Aged and Older Adults with Diabetes: The Health and Retirement Study. Medical Care. 2010 Apr;48(4):327-34.

4. Marsteller J, Hsu Y, Reider L, Frey K, Wolff J, Boyd CM, Leff B, Scharfstein Dl, Boult C. "Physician Satisfaction with Chronic Illness Care: A Randomized Trial of Guided Care. Annals of Family Medicine. 2010 Jul-Aug;8(4):308-15.

5. Young Y, Boyd CM, Guralnik JM, Bandeen-Roche K, Fried LP. Does Self-Reported Function Correspond to Objective Measures of Functional Impairment? JAMDA. 2010 Nov; 11(9):645-53.

6. Varadhan R, Weiss C, Segal JB,Wu AW, Scharfstein D, Boyd CM. Evaluating Health Outcomes in the Presence of Competing Risks: A Review of Statistical Methods and Clinical Applications. Medical Care.
2010 Jun;48(6 Suppl):S96-105.

7. Fagan P, Schuster AB, Boyd C, Marsteller JA, Griswold M, Murphy S, Dunbar L, Forrest CB.  Chronic Care Improvement in Primary Care: Evaluation of an Integrated Pay-for-Performance and Practice-Based Care Coordination Program among Elderly Patients with Diabetes. Health Services Research, 2010 Dec; 45(6 Pt. 1):1763-82.

8. Boyd CM, Fortin M. Future of Multimorbidity Research: How Should Understanding of Multimorbidity Inform Health System Design? Public Health Reviews. 2010;32:451-74.

9. Boult C, Reider L, Leff B, Frick K, Boyd CM, Wolff JL, Frey K, Karm L, Wegener S, Mroz T,  Scharfstein DO. The Effect of Guided Care Teams on the Use of Health Services: Results from a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2011 Mar 14; 171(5):460-6.

10. Boyd CM, Leff B, Wolff J, Yu Q, Zhou J, Rand C, Weiss C. Informing Clinical Practice Guideline Development and Implementation: Prevalence of Co-existing Conditions Among Adults with Heart Disease. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. May 2011; 59(5):797-805.

11.  Vollenweider D, Boyd CM, Puhan M.  High Prevalence of potential biases threatens the   
 interpretation of trials in patients with chronic disease.  BMC Medicine. 2011 Jun 13; 9:73.

12. Uhlig K. and Boyd CM. Guidelines for the Older Adult with Chronic Kidney Disease. AJKD. 2011 Aug, 58(2):162-5.

13. Hanania NA, King MJ, Braman SS, Saltoun C, Wise RA, Enright P, Falsey AR, Mathur SK, Ramsdell JW, Rogers L, Stempel DA, Lima JJ, Fish JE, Wilson SR, Boyd C, Patel KV, Irvin CG, Yawn BP, Halm EA, Wasserman SI, Sands MF, Ershler WB, Ledford DK; Asthma in the Elderly workshop participants. Asthma in the Elderly:  Current Understanding and Future Research Needs – a Report of a National Institute on Aging (NIA) Workshop. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2011 Sep; 12(3 Suppl):S4-S24.

14. Leff B, Boyd C, Reider L, Mroz T, Frick K, Frey K, Wegener ST, Scharfstein DO, Wolff JL.  Is Reducing Home Health a step in the right direction? – Reply. Arch Intern Med 2011; 171(17):1598.

15. Varadhan R, Weiss CO, Boyd C.  The Potential for Increasing Quality and Reducing Costs.  J Am Geriatr Soc. 2011 Oct 18;155(8):564.

16. Szanton S, Thorpe RJ, Boyd C, Tanner, E, Leff, B, Agree, E, Xue, Q, Allen, J, Seplaki, CL, Weiss, CO, Guralnik, JM, Gitlin, LN. Community Aging in Place, Advancing Better Living for Elders: A Bio-Behavioral-Environmental Intervention to Improve Function and Health-Related Quality of Life in Disabled Older Adults, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.  2011 Dec:59(12):2314-20.

17. Giovannetti ER, Wolff JL, Xue Q, Weiss CO, Leff B, Boult C, Hughes T, Boyd CM. (2011) Difficulty Assisting with Health Care Tasks Among Caregivers of Multimorbid Older Adults.  J Gen Intern Med. 2012 Jan;27(1):37-44.

18. Wolff J, Boyd CM, Gitlin LN, Bruce ML and Roter DL. Going it Together: Persistence of Older Adults’ Accompaniment to Physician Visits by a Family Companion, J Am Geriatr Soc. 2012 Jan;60(1):106-12.

19. Lee S, Boyd CM. Diabetes Mellitus Performance Measures in Individuals with Limited Life Expectancy, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.  2012 Feb;60(2):361-3.

20. Scharfstein DO, Boyd CM, Wolff JL, Boult C. Letter to the Editor. The American Journal of Managed Care. 2012 Feb;18(2).

21. Freund T, Wensing M, Geissler S, Peters-Klimm F, Mahler C, Boyd C, Szecsenyi J. Primary Care Physicians' Experiences with Case Finding for Practice-Based Care Management. Am J Man Care. 2012 April 1;18(4):e155-e161.

22. Abrass CK, Appelbaum JS, Boyd CM, Braithwaite R, Broudy VC, Covinsky K, Crothers KA, Harrington R, Drootin M, Gebo K, Goodkin K, Havlik RJ, Hazzard W, High K, Hsue P, John MD, Justice A, Karpiak S, McCormick WC, McNicholl IR, Newman A, Simone-Skidmore MJ, South K, Spach D, Valcour V. Summary report from the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Aging Consensus Project: treatment strategies for clinicians managing older individuals with the human immunodeficiency virus. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2012 May;60(5):974-9.

23. Weiss, CO, Boyd CM, Wolff JL, Leff B. Prevalence of Diabetes Treatment Effect Modifiers: The External Validity of Trials to Older Adults. Aging Clin Exper Res. 2012;24(4):370-376.

24. Tinetti ME, Fried TR, Boyd CM. Designing Health Care for the Most Common Chronic Condition – Multimorbidity, JAMA. 2012 June 20;307(23)2493-4.

25. Schnell KM, Weiss CO, Lee T, Krishnan JA, Leff B, Wolff JL, Boyd C. The prevalence of clinically-relevant comorbid conditions in patients with COPD: a cross-sectional study using data from NHANES 1999-2008. BMC Pulmonary Medicine. 2012 Jul 9;12:26.
26. Boyd CM, Vollenweider D, Puhan MA. Informing Evidence-Based Decision-Making for Patients with Comorbidity: Availability of Necessary Information in Clinical Trials for Chronic Diseases. PLoS ONE. 2012 August;7(8):e41601.

27. Boyd CM, McNabney MK, Brandt N, Correa-de-Araujuo R, Daniel M, Epplin J, Fried TR, Goldstein MK, Holmes HM, Ritchie CS, Shega JW. Guiding Principles for the Care of Older Adults With Multimorbidity: An Approach for Clinicians: American Geriatrics Society Expert Panel on the Care of Older Adults with Multimorbidity. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2012 Oct;60(10):E1-E25.

28. Boyd CM, McNabney MK, Brandt N, Correa-de-Araujo R, Daniel KM, Epplin J, Fried TR, Goldstein MK, Holmes HM, Ritchie CS, Shega JW. Patient-Centered Care for Older Adults with Multiple Chronic Conditions: A Stepwise Approach from the American Geriatrics Society. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2012 Oct;60(10):1957-68.

29. Boyd CM, Singh S, Varadhan R, Weiss CO, Sharma R, Bass EB, Puhan MA. Methods for Benefit and Harm Assessment in Systematic Reviews. Methods Research Report. (Prepared by the Johns Hopkins University Evidence-based Practice Center under contract No. 290-2007-10061-I). AHRQ Publication No. 12(13)-EHC150-EF. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; November 2012.

30. Puhan MA, Singh S, Weiss CO, Varadhan R, Boyd C. A framework for organizing and selecting quantitative approaches for benefit-harm assessment.  BMC Medical Research Methodology. 2012 Nov 19;12(1):173.

31. Dattalo M, Giovannetti ER, Scharfstein D, Boult C, Wegener S, Wolff JL, Leff B, Frick KD,  Reider L, Frey K, Noronha G, Boyd C. Who Participates in Chronic Disease Self-Management (CDSM) Programs? CDSM Participants and Non-Participants in a Population of Multimorbid Older Adults. Medical Care. 2012 Dec;50(12):1071-5.

32. Fabbri LM, Boyd C, Boschetto P, Rabe KF, Buist AS, Yawn B, Leff B, Kent DM, Schünemann HJ; on behalf of the ATS/ERS Ad Hoc Committee on Integrating and Coordinating Efforts in COPD Guideline Development. How to Integrate Multiple Comorbidities in Guideline Development: Article 10 in Integrating and Coordinating Efforts in COPD Guideline Development. An Official ATS/ERS Workshop Report. Proc Am Thorac Soc. 2012 Dec 15;9(5):274-281.

33. Yu T, Vollenweider D, Varadhan R, Li T, Boyd C, Puhan MA. Support of Personalized Medicine Through Risk-Stratified Treatment Recommendations - An Environmental Scan of Clinical Practice Guidelines. BMC Medicine. 2013 Jan 9;11(7).

34. Boult C,  Leff B, Boyd CM, Wolff JL, Marstellar JA, Frick KD et al.  A Matched-Pair Cluster-Randomized Trial of Guided Care for High-Risk Older Patients. J Gen Intern Med, 2013 May;28(5):612-21.

35. Dorsey ER, Venkataraman V, Grana MJ, Bull MT, George BP, Boyd CM, Beck CA, Rajan B, Seidmann A, Biglan KM. Randomized, controlled trial of “virtual housecalls” for Parkinson disease. JAMA Neurology. 2013 May;70(5):565-70.

36. Varadhan R, Weiss C, Segal JB, Boyd C, Wu A. A Framework for the Analysis of Heterogeneity of Treatment Effect in Patient-Centered Outcomes Research. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.  2013 Aug;66(8):818-25.
37. Holmes H, Min L, Yee M, Varadhan R, Dale W, Boyd CM. Rationalizing Prescribing for Older Patients with Multimorbidity: Considering Time to Benefit. Drugs & Aging. 2013 Sep;30(9):655-66.

38. Dugoff E, Dy S, Giovannetti E, Leff B, Boyd CM. Setting Standards at the Forefront of Delivery System Reform: Aligning Care Coordination Quality Measures for Multiple Chronic Conditions Journal for Healthcare Quality. 2013 Sep-Oct;35(5):58-69.

39. Giovannetti ER, Dy S, Leff B, Weston C, Adam K, Valuck T, Pittman A, Blaum C, McCann B, Boyd CM.  Performance measurement for people with multiple chronic conditions: a conceptual model.  The American Journal of Managed Care.  2013 Oct 1;19(10):e359-66..

40. Marsteller JA, Hsu YJ, Wen M, Wolff J, Frick K, Reider L, Scharfstein D, Boyd C, Leff B, Schwartz L, Karm L, Boult C. Effects of Guided Care on Providers’ Satisfaction with Care: A Three-Year Matched-Pair Cluster-Randomized Trial. Population Health Management. 2013 Oct;16(5):317-25.

41. Giovannetti ER, Reider L, Wolff JL, Frick KD, Boult C, Steinwachs D, Boyd CM. Do older patients and their family caregivers agree about the quality of chronic illness care? Int J Qual Health Care, 2013 Oct;25(5):515-24.

42. Puhan MA, Singh S, Weiss CO, Varadhan R, Sharma R, Boyd CM. Evaluation of the Benefits and Harms of Aspirin for Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Events: A Comparison of Quantitative Approaches. Methods Research Report. (Prepared by Johns Hopkins University Evidence-based Practice Center under contract No. 290-2007-10061-I). AHRQ Publication No. 12(14)-EHC149-EF. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. November 2013.

43. Yu T, Fain KM, Boyd CM, Singh S, Weiss CO, Li T, Varadhan R, Puhan MA.  Benefits and harms of roflumilast in patients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a history of exacerbations, Thorax, 2013 Dec 17. [Epub ahead of print].

44. Wolff JL, Roter DL, Barron J, Boyd CM, Leff B, Finucane TE, Gallo JJ, Rabins PV, Roth DL, Gitlin LN.  A Tool to Strengthen the Older Patient-Companion Partnership in Primary Care: Results from a Pilot Study.  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2014 Jan 13. [Epub ahead of print].

45. Dy S, Pfoh E, Salive M, Boyd CM. Health-related quality of life and functional status quality indicators for older persons with multiple chronic conditions. JAGS. 2013 Dec;61(12):2120-7.

46. Boyd CM and Kent D. Evidence-Based Medicine and the Hard Problem of Multimorbidity. JGIM 2014 Jan 18. [Epub ahead of print]

47. Weiss CO, Varadhan R, Puhan M, Vickers A, Bandeen-Roche K, Boyd CM, Kent  DA. Multimorbidity and Evidence Generation, JGIM 2014 Jan 18. [Epub ahead of print].

48. Trikalinos T, Segal J, Boyd CM. Addressing Multimorbidity in Evidence Synthesis and Integration., JGIM 2014 Jan 18. [Epub ahead of print].

49. Uhlig K, Leff B, Kent D, Dy S, Brunnhuber K, Burgers J, Greenfield S, Guyatt G, High K, Leipzig R, Mulrow C, Schmader K, Schunemann H, Walter L, Woodcock J, and Boyd CM. A framework for crafting clinical practice guidelines that are relevant to the care and management of people with multimorbidity. JGIM 2014 Jan 18. [Epub ahead of print].

Activities & Honors

Honors

  • U.S. Presidential Scholar, New Jersey, 1988
  • Summer Fellowship, American Heart Association, 1990
  • Albert C. Schweitzer Fellow, North Carolina, 1995
  • Pathology Honor Society, Duke University School of Medicine, 1995
  • Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, Duke University School of Medicine, 1995
  • Clinical Research Fellow Award, Department of Medicine Annual Retreat, Johns Hopkins University, 2001
  • Presidential Poster Session, Annual Meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, 2001
  • Geriatric Medicine Fellow, John A. Hartford Foundation, 2001
  • Presidential Poster Session, Annual Meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, 2002
  • Presidential Poster Award: Clinical Practice Guidelines and Older Adults with Multiple Comorbid Conditions, Models of Geriatric Care, American Geriatric Society, 2003
  • Presidential Poster Session, Annual Meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, 2005
  • Best Epidemiology Paper, Annual Meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, 2005
  • Bayview Scholar, at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Center for Innovative Medicine, 2005
  • Presidential Poster Session, Annual Meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, 2007
  • American Geriatric Society New Investigator Award, Annual Meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, 2007
  • Outstanding Scientific Achievement for Clinical Investigation Award, American Geriatric Society, 2010
  • Discovery Fund Synergy Award, Johns Hopkins, 2014
  • Beeson Scholar, American Federation for Aging Research, 2009
  • Robert Wood Johnson Physician Faculty Scholar, 2008
  • Fellow, American College of Physicians, 2014
  • Fellow, American Geriatric Society, 2016
  • Outstanding Committee Service Award for the AGS Research Committee, 2020

Memberships

  • Agency for Health Care Research and Quality: Prevention Quality Indicators Clinical Expert Panel, 2008 - 2009
  • American Geriatrics Society (AGS), 2002 - 2009
    Junior Research Faculty Special Interest Group Steering Committee; Mentoring Program, Co-lead, 2005-2007; Research Committee Annual Meeting, 2005
  • American Geriatrics Society Research Committees Sub Committee on Public Relations and the Foundation for Health in Aging, 2008 - 2009
  • American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, 2011
    The Potential of Linking Quality of Medical Care with Payment Structures in the German and U.S. Health Care Systems
  • Department of Health and Human Services, 2011 - 2012
    Multiple Chronic Conditions Expert Panel
  • National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), 2006
    Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) in COPD Meeting
  • National Institute on Aging, 2012
    Multiple Chronic Conditions Outcome Measures: Strategic Implementation Workgroup
  • National Institute on Aging (NIA), 2004 - 2005
    Comorbidity Task Force
  • National Institute on Aging Meeting on Outcome Measures for Older Persons with Multiple Chronic Conditions, 2011
  • National Quality Forum: Steering Committee, 2011
    Establishing a Measurement Framework for Multiple Chronic Conditions
  • United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) Technical Expert Panel, 2011 - 2012
    Methods to Assess Benefits and Harms for Preventative Services in Older Adults
  • VA State of the Art Conference: Managing Complexity in Chronic Care, 2006
    Member
  • Fellow, American College of Physicians
  • Fellow, American Geriatrics Society

Professional Activities

  • Comorbidity Task Force, National Institute on Aging, 2004
  • Steering Committee, National Quality Forum, 2011
  • Member, Department of Health and Human Services, Multiple Chronic Conditions Expert Panel, 2011
  • Workgroup member, National Institute on Aging, Multiple Chronic Conditions Outcome Measures: Strategic Implementation Workgroup, 2012
  • Co-chair, American Geriatrics Society’s Expert Panel on the Care of Older Adults with Multimorbidity, Chairs: Cynthia Boyd and Matt McNabney, 2012
  • Research Group Facilitator, NIH/PCORI Meeting on Multiple Chronic Conditions in Context, 2013
  • External Advisory Committee member, University of Massachusetts, R24 Advancing Geriatrics Infrastructure and Network Growth, 2014
  • Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee member, American College of Physicians, 2015
  • Advisory Committee member, PCORI Project, Consumers United for Evidence-Based HealthCare, By Consumers, for Consumers: Building Capacity and Partnerships to Enhance Patent-centeredness, 2015
  • Clinical Guidelines Committee member, Bruyere Research Institute, 2015
  • American Geriatrics Society Research Committee Member, 2015
  • Co-Chair, Public Relations Subcommittee of the American Geriatrics Society Research Committee, 2017
  • Committee Member, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on The Health and Medical Dimensions of Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults, 2018
  • Vice Chair, American Geriatrics Society Research Committee, 2019
  • External Advisory Committee, Older American Independence Center, University of Maryland, 2019
  • Promote Center, Co-Chair, External Advisory Committee, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, 2019
  • Chair, Annual Meeting Subcommittee of the American Geriatrics Society Research Committee, 2020

Patient Ratings & Comments

The Patient Rating score is an average of all responses to physician related questions on the national CG-CAHPS Medical Practice patient experience survey through Press Ganey. Responses are measured on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best score. Comments are also gathered from our CG-CAHPS Medical Practice Survey through Press Ganey and displayed in their entirety. Patients are de-identified for confidentiality and patient privacy.

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