Dr. Sharon K. Inouye is the Director of the Aging Brain Center at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, Massachusetts. She holds the Milton and Shirley F. Levy Family Chair and is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center). Specifically, her research focuses on delirium and functional decline in hospitalized older patients. To date, her work has resulted in over 250 peer-reviewed articles. Currently, she is the overall principal investigator of the Successful Aging after Elective Surgery (SAGES) study. This is an $11 million Program Project on delirium funded by the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Inouye also serves as PI on 5 other active NIH-funded research projects.

Dr. Inouye developed and validated the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM), the most widely-used instrument for the identification of delirium worldwide. In addition, she developed the Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP). This multicomponent intervention strategy designed to prevent delirium targets six delirium risk factors.  Furthermore, over 200 hospitals worldwide use the HELP program.

Dr. Inouye was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) in 2011. She has been elected to Fellowship status in the Gerontological Society of America (2013), the American College of Physicians (2015) and American Geriatrics Society (2015). Recently, she received the 2015 M. Powell Lawton Award from the Gerontological Society of America.