Rate My Professor Ulrich Bergler

Hans Ulrich Bergler, professionally known as Ulrich Bergler, is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago's Christchurch campus, within the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Division. He possesses qualifications including an MSc, a Graduate Diploma in Science (GradDipSc) from the University of Canterbury, and a Dipl-Ing (FH) from Munich University of Applied Sciences. Bergler joined the University of Otago in 2016 as a Research Fellow and Data Manager, contributing to epidemiological research on ageing and older adults' health. His roles involve data management and analysis for studies on geriatric populations, including participation in the Ageing Well National Science Challenge focused on reducing social isolation among older people.

Bergler's research specializations encompass frailty in older adults, deprescribing of anticholinergic and sedative drugs, polypharmacy reduction, epidemiology of vision and hearing impairment, multistate models of loneliness and carer distress, healthcare costs linked to frailty and drug burden, chronic health conditions' impact on mortality, frailty index development compatible with interRAI assessments, and social factors influencing aged residential care admissions. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals. Key publications include: "Epidemiology of Vision and Hearing Impairment in Older Community Dwelling Adults in New Zealand" (2025, Australasian Journal on Ageing); "A multistate transition model of changes in loneliness and carer stress among community-dwelling older adults in Aotearoa New Zealand" (2024, Psychogeriatrics); "The Drug Burden Index and Level of Frailty as Determinants of Healthcare Costs in a Cohort of Older Frail Adults in New Zealand" (2024); "Deprescribing Anticholinergic and Sedative Drugs to Reduce Polypharmacy in Frail Older Adults Living in the Community: A Randomized Controlled Trial" (2023, The Journals of Gerontology: Series A); "Post Hoc Analyses of a Randomized Controlled Trial for the Effect of Pharmacist Deprescribing Intervention on the Anticholinergic Burden in Frail Community-Dwelling Older Adults" (2023, Journal of the American Medical Directors Association); "Development and validation of a frailty index compatible with three interRAI assessment instruments" (2022, Age and Ageing); and "Frailty of Māori, Pasifika, and Non-Māori/Non-Pasifika Older People in New Zealand: A National Cross-Sectional Study" (2021, The Journals of Gerontology: Series A). With over 126 citations, his contributions advance understanding of health challenges in New Zealand's ageing population, particularly for Māori and Pasifika communities.