About

Azziza (Kemi) Bankole, MBBS, is a Senior Advisor for Faculty Affairs at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. She supports administrative processes within the Office of Faculty Affairs, including appointment review procedures for deans and department chairs, and engagement with prospective and new faculty members. Dr. Bankole received her medical degree from the University of Ibadan College of Medicine in Nigeria and completed her internship there as well as at Dorset County Hospital. She pursued a psychiatry residency at Hull and East Riding, Cottingham in the United Kingdom, and subsequently completed a psychiatry residency at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. She also completed a geriatric psychiatry fellowship at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health Systems, Zucker Hillside Hospital, during which she obtained an Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) certification. She is board certified in both general psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry. Since 2009, Dr. Bankole has worked as an attending geriatric psychiatrist in the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Carilion Clinic Center for Healthy Aging. Her clinical practice includes ambulatory care, consultation services for long-term care facilities in the Roanoke Valley, and ECT services. She was appointed assistant professor at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in 2010 and promoted to associate professor in 2016. She has been involved in medical education since her residency and currently serves as the program director for the geriatric psychiatry fellowship at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. Dr. Bankole has contributed to the medical school as a member of the community engagement working group, the VTCSOM scholarship committee, and as a department representative to the Virginia Tech Faculty Senate. As a clinical researcher, she has mentored medical students and residents and collaborated with researchers at FBRI, VT, UVA, George Washington University, and North Carolina A&T. Her research interests include dementia, medical use of sensing technology, and ECT. She has received research funding from Carilion Clinic, the Alzheimer’s & Related Diseases Research Award Fund, and the National Science Foundation. Dr. Bankole has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association in 2015, a Distinguished Fellow of the same association in 2023, and is a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2025.

Research topics

• Psychiatry
• Medicine
• Computer Science
• Gerontology
• Psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Human–computer interaction
• Nursing
• Geography

Selected publications

• Momentary Environmental Context and Agitation in Persons with Dementia at Home Settings: A Time-Series Analysis

  Innovation in Aging · 2025-12-01

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Dementia-related agitation often occurs in unpredictable episodes throughout the day, contributing to increased caregiver stress and early nursing home placement. There is a lack of knowledge about the dynamics of momentary agitation influenced by home environment triggers. We conducted a secondary time-series analysis of the Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention (BESI) dataset to examine how home environmental conditions relate to agitation episodes reported by caregivers of PWD at home. The time-series analysis used data from 13 BESI deployments (Phase II: eight 30-day, Phase III: five 60-day). Environmental features, including light level, temperature, humidity, air pressure, and noise/audio features, were collected via room-level sensors. Agitation was captured using wrist-worn accelerometers. Caregivers provided timestamped agitation reports and contextual surveys. Data were harmonized across modalities using UNIX (a standardized digital timestamp format) and relative time formats. Agitation windows (±5 minutes) were labeled, and environmental features were normalized. Generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate agitation likelihood based on environmental fluctuations, controlling household-level clustering. Preliminary modeling revealed that elevated noise levels and abrupt light changes significantly increased agitation odds (p < 0.05), especially bedroom and kitchen. Caregiver-targeted interventions in Phase III deployments demonstrated reduced agitation sensitivity to environmental volatility. This suggests that real-time contextual feedback enhanced caregiver responsiveness and behavior management. Momentary environmental context plays a critical role in dementia-related agitation. Time-series data offer a novel lens for understanding agitation triggers in dementia care. Findings support the development of context-aware, just-in-time interventions to empower caregivers and improve dementia care in home settings.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 11. MIRTAZAPINE INDUCED TARDIVE DYSKINESIA IN AN OLDER ADULT

  American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry · 2025-07-15 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Dementia Caregiver Empowerment (BESI): A Pilot Study

  Journal of the American Medical Directors Association · 2024-06-04 · 1 citations

  letter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Area Deprivation Index and Dementia Evaluation and Diagnosis in Virginia

  American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry · 2024-02-19

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Association of the Area Deprivation Index With Dementia Basic Workup and Diagnosis in Central and Western Virginia

  Neurology Clinical Practice · 2024-06-10 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Background and Objectives: The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) provides a validated and multidimensional metric of areal disadvantage. Our goals were to determine if the ADI influences the likelihood of receiving workup based on published guidelines and an etiologic diagnosis of dementia in Central and Western Virginia. Methods: We collected deidentified data from the electronic health record of individuals aged 50-105 years diagnosed with dementia at the University of Virginia (UVA) Medical Center (2016-2021) and at Carillion Clinic (2018-2021). Visit-specific ICD-10 codes were used to classify each dementia diagnosis as "disease-specific" (e.g., Alzheimer disease) or "general" (e.g., unspecified dementia). Following the American Academy of Neurology guidelines, we considered the evaluation performed as "adequate" if patients had vitamin B12, thyroid-stimulating hormone, and brain CT or magnetic resonance imaging within 6 months of the initial diagnosis. Census tract ADI was linked to study participants using the unique census tract identifier derived from the participants' home addresses at the time of diagnosis. Statistical modeling occurred under a Bayesian paradigm implemented using a standard code in R. Results: The study included 13,431 individuals diagnosed with dementia at UVA (n = 7,152) and Carillion Clinic (n = 6,279). Of those, 32.5% and 20.4% received "disease-specific" diagnoses at UVA and Carillion Clinic and 8.2% and 20.4% underwent "adequate" workup, respectively. The adjusted relationship between census tract ADI and the likelihood of a disease-specific diagnosis was U-shaped: Residence in moderately disadvantaged areas was associated with the lowest likelihood of disease-specific diagnosis. Discussion: Most patients diagnosed with dementia did not receive an adequate evaluation or an etiologic diagnosis. Those living in locations just above the national median ADI levels had the lowest likelihood of receiving an etiologic diagnosis, lower than those in the least and most deprived areas. Renewed awareness efforts among providers are needed to increase compliance with diagnostic guidelines.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Developing a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Curriculum for Trainees

  American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry · 2024-02-19

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• What Should Be the Scope of Long-Term Care Organizations’ Obligations to Offer Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services to Patients?

  The AMA Journal of Ethic · 2023-10-01

  articleOpen access

  Limited access to health services, decreased quality of care, and worse health outcomes are well documented barriers people with limited English proficiency (LEP) face in US health care.Laws enacted since the 1964 Civil Rights Act recognize such barriers and have helped generate demand for culturally respectful health service provision, assessment of cross-cultural relations, and adaptation of services that fail to meet persons' needs and improve quality of life.Yet, as this commentary on a case considers, even with legal protections for language services for patients with LEP, long-term care facilities face limited resources and thus have limited capacity to offer such services.Case JK is an 85-year-old, widowed, native Bosnian speaker with limited English language proficiency (LEP), who is admitted to a nursing home.JK experiences chronic physical illness and cognitive dysfunction and can no longer live in her home since the death of her 69-year-old daughter, who was her caregiver.JK came from Bosnia-Herzegovina to the United States many years ago with her husband to live with her daughter and has no remaining family in the United States.JK briefly communicates via an online interpreter service daily with staff during rounds, but otherwise she interacts only minimally with others.JK has become socially withdrawn and depressed, has minimal appetite, and is losing weight.When JK is visited by a Bosnian-speaking friend of her daughter, who brings Bosnian food, she eats and converses with ease and joy.JK's visitor informs the staff that JK is not comfortable talking about her body or how she is feeling with the interpreter offered by the online international language service, who is Serbian.JK's caregivers' encounter with JK's visitor illuminated for them how profoundly the linguistic and food services they have been offering JK undermine her well-being and

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Every reminder throws me off

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2022-05-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a relatively common clinical condition in older adults and may be triggered by a wide range of traumas, not just major events such as war, conflict, or assault. Careful screening and history-taking is the key to diagnosis. A range of screening instruments exist to help identify PTSD. Psychotherapy, especially cognitive–behavioral therapy or approaches derived from it, represents the mainstay of treatment, though engagement in ongoing therapy can often be challenging, especially for older adults. Medications have an adjunctive role, primarily to manage significant mood or comorbid anxiety symptoms. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and antidepressants are considered the first-line agents for pharmacotherapy. Benzodiazepines should be avoided.

  PublisherDOI

• Dementia Caregiver Experiences and Recommendations for Using the Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention System at Home: Usability and Acceptability Study (Preprint)

  2021-05-12

  preprintOpen access

  <sec> <title>BACKGROUND</title> Caregiver burden associated with dementia-related agitation is one of the most common reasons for a community-dwelling person living with dementia to transition to a care facility. The Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention (BESI) for the Dementia Caregiver Empowerment system uses sensing technology, smartwatches, tablets, and data analytics to detect and predict agitation in persons living with dementia and to provide just-in-time notifications and dyad-specific intervention recommendations to caregivers. The BESI system has shown that there is a valid relationship between dementia-related agitation and environmental factors and that caregivers prefer a home-based monitoring system. </sec> <sec> <title>OBJECTIVE</title> The aim of this study is to obtain input from caregivers of persons living with dementia on the value, usability, and acceptability of the BESI system in the home setting and obtain their insights and recommendations for the next stage of system development. </sec> <sec> <title>METHODS</title> A descriptive qualitative design with thematic analysis was used to analyze 10 semistructured interviews with caregivers. The interviews comprised 16 questions, with an 80% (128/160) response rate. </sec> <sec> <title>RESULTS</title> Postdeployment caregiver feedback about the BESI system and the overall experience were generally positive. Caregivers acknowledged the acceptability of the system by noting the ease of use and saw the system as a fit for them. Functionality issues such as timeliness in agitation notification and simplicity in the selection of agitation descriptors on the tablet interface were identified, and caregivers indicated a desire for more word options to describe agitation behaviors. Agitation intervention suggestions were well received by the caregivers, and the resulting decrease in the number and severity of agitation events helped confirm that the BESI system has good value and acceptability. Thematic analysis suggested several subjective experiences and yielded the themes of usefulness and helpfulness. </sec> <sec> <title>CONCLUSIONS</title> This study determined preferences for assessing caregiver strain and burden, explored caregiver acceptance of the technology system (in-home sensors, actigraph or smart watch technology, and tablet devices), discerned caregiver insights on the burden and stress of caring for persons living with dementia experiencing agitation in dementia, and solicited caregiver input and recommendations for system changes. The themes of usefulness and helpfulness support the use of caregiver knowledge and experience to inform further development of the technology. </sec>

  PublisherDOI

• Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 on Geriatric Psychiatry

  Psychiatric Clinics of North America · 2021-11-12 · 7 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Martha Anderson

  50 shared

• John Lach

  George Washington University

  26 shared

• Tonya L. Smith‐Jackson

  North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

  16 shared

• Temple Newbold

  Virginia Tech

  16 shared

• Ridwan Alam

  IIT@MIT

  15 shared

• Rosalyn Moran

  14 shared

• Nutta Homdee

  Mahidol University

  13 shared

• Erik D. Fagerholm

  Masaryk University

  10 shared

Labs

• Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine Research LabPI

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association 2015
• Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association…
• Gold Humanism Honor Society 2025