Geriatrics in the News

RUC Adds Two New Members
Healthcare Finance News
February 2, 2012
Stephanie Bouchard writes, "The American Medical Association/Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee, known as RUC, is adding a permanent seat for a representative from the American Geriatric Society (AGS) and a rotating seat for a primary care physician. 'The awarding of a permanent seat is further recognition of the ways in which the expertise of geriatrics health professionals is integral to ensuring that the healthcare system provides high quality care to older adults,' said AGS' leadership in a letter to its members posted to its website Wednesday. 'We are looking forward to continuing to work on improving how geriatrics services are valued by Medicare,' the letter concludes. 'The RUC offers us an important vehicle for ensuring that payment supports the provision of high-quality, well-coordinated care to older adults.'"

Connecting with Alzheimer's Patients -- Even in the Latest Stages of the Disease
Huffington Post
February 1, 2012
Marie Marley writes, "Music also has the power to reach Alzheimer's patients on a profound level. It can have positive effects on their health and social functioning. Often times late-stage Alzheimer's patients can sing songs, including the lyrics, long after they've lost the ability to recognize loved ones, dress themselves or remember what happened five minutes earlier. In fact, music may be the only thing to which some late stage patients will respond. 'It is remarkable how music can penetrate the mind of an otherwise severely impaired person with Alzheimers," says Gregg Warshaw, M.D., former president of the American Geriatric Society. He says he's seen patients who can barely walk get up and start dancing to music. "Others start clapping and singing,' he adds."

Interactive Tools to Assess the Likelihood of Death
New York Times
January 11, 2012
To help prevent overtesting and overtreatment of older patients - or undertreatment for those who remain robust at advanced ages - medical guidelines increasingly call for doctors to consider life expectancy as a factor in their decision-making. But clinicians, research has shown, are notoriously poor at predicting how many years their patients have left. Now, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have identified 16 assessment scales with "moderate" to "very good" abilities to determine the likelihood of death within six months to five years in various older populations. Moreover, the authors have fashioned interactive tools of the most accurate and useful assessments. The researchers published a review of these assessments in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and posted the interactive versions at a new Web site calledePrognosis.org. "We think a more frank discussion of prognosis in the elderly is sorely needed," said AGS member Dr. Sei Lee, a geriatrician at U.C.S.F. and a co-author of the review. "Without it, decisions are made that are more likely to hurt patients than help them."

Four common meds send thousands of seniors to hospital
USA Today
December 1, 2011
AGS Member Michael Steinman, an associate professor of medicine in the division of geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, discussed the results of a NEJM study on adverse drug reactions in older adults with HealthDay reporter Jenifer Goodwin. In this article, which was featured on USAToday’s website, Steinman explains, "this study highlights a few key issues that are important for doctors and patients to be aware of. The first is that serious adverse reactions to drugs are common among older people, particularly among people over 80. But even those 65 and older are at substantial risk of having an adverse effect from their drugs."

Seniors Face Doctor Shortage
The Wall Street Journal’s Smart Money
November 14th, 2011
There’s now a shortage of geriatricians — doctors who focus on treating seniors — and experts say the problem is projected to only get worse. One of the reasons for this shortage is that “a career focused on caring for older adults can be particularly financially unattractive for physicians with increasingly large medical school loan debts,” says Jillian Lubarsky, a spokesperson for the society.  That’s because Medicare reimbursement rates are often lower than regular insurance rates, which means that geriatricians sometimes get paid less, she says. To help reduce the geriatrician shortage, the American Geriatric Society is working to advance loan forgiveness for those in the geriatrics field, as well as to reform payment practices that currently are sometimes unfavorable to geriatricians.

Preventing Hospital Delirium
The New York Times
November 8th, 2011
“Delirium is one of the most costly complications of a trip to the hospital. It leads to longer stays [and] can cost each elderly patient an extra $60,000 to $64,000 per hospital stay.” What’s more, “post-hospital treatment for delirium costs $143 billion to $152 billion per year. This includes additional rehabilitation services, home health and caregiver care, and nursing. That’s why prevention is crucial. ‘We could solve the Medicare problem just by preventing hospital delirium, and 30 to 40 percent of it could be prevented,’” said Dr. Sharon Inouye, AGS member, in The New York Times “New Old Age Blog.” The blog highlights new research from the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) examining the Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP), a successful cost-saving intervention to prevent delirium in older hospitalized adults, developed by Dr. Inouye.

Boomers' aging casts light on geriatrics shortage
Associated Press
November 8th, 2011
The Associated Press reports on the field of geriatrics explaining, “The American Geriatrics Society says today there's roughly one geriatrician for every 2,600 people 75 and older. Without a drastic change in the number of doctors choosing the specialty, the ratio is projected to fall to one geriatrician for every 3,800 older Americans by 2030….Geriatricians, at their best, are medicine's unsung heroes. They understand how an older person's body and mind work differently. They listen more but are paid less than their peers. They have the skills to alleviate their patients' ailments and living fuller, more satisfied lives. Though not every senior needs a geriatrician, their training often makes them the best equipped to respond when an older patient has multiple medical problems. Geriatricians have expertise in areas that general internists don't, including the changes in cognitive ability, mood, gait, balance and continence, as well as the effects of drugs on older individuals.”

Doctor pinpoints factors that limit treatment of seniors
Palm Beach Daily News
November 8, 2011
In a recent interview with the Palm Beach Daily News AGS' Joseph Ouslander, MD, discusses the importance of personalizing care and treatment for older adults with complex medical needs. "[P]hysicians should review every (older) patient's medications to ensure all drugs are necessary and are not causing risky side effects," which is an unfortunate reality among older adults, Dr. Outlander notes. The article succinctly explains AGS' mission and vision -- improving older adults' heath, independence and quality of life by advancing patient-centered care.