MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!! The SAEM Geriatrics Interest Group (GIG) is excited to announce it will have Dr. Susan Nayfield speak at the IG meeting to be held on Saturday May 31, 2008 from 10:00a-12:00p (Washington Room #1). Dr. Nayfield is the Chief of the Geriatrics Branch in the Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology Program at the National Institute on Aging. She will be discussing how the NIA is structured, its various programs, what the role of the GCG has at the NIA and how the emergency medicine specialty could mutually augment research and efforts supported by the NIA and GCG. For those of you interested in funding opportunities or discussion on how to develop your research to be in concordance with the goals of the NIA, this will be an excellent opportunity to gather information and ask questions.
Another activity includes the GIG’s co-sponsoring (along with the Geriatric Task Force, and Palliative Medicine Interest Group) of a second didactic/interactive session on “Quality Geriatric Emergency Care: Preparing for the Future” that will also be held on Saturday May 31, 2008. This session will focus on the development of quality indicators for geriatric ED patient care involving functional assessment, screening and preventions, and medication use. The first session took place at the 2007 SAEM meeting and involved developing quality indicators for transitional care, cognitive impairment screening, and pain and palliative care.
Funding and news in Geriatric EM:
We have great news to report of recent awardees in Emergency Medicine focused on aging research and education! Christopher Carpenter recently was selected as the Goldfarb Patient Safety Fellow for 2008-2010. He will focus his research on improving emergency care of aging adults through education and best-evidence processes. By using knowledge translation projects that are currently underway, he will study how to modify physician behavior to follow best-practices in St. Louis. Teresita Hogan was recently selected as the first emergency physician to receive the esteemed Brookdale Fellowship for 2008-2010. The Brookdale Foundation's mission is to enhance the quality of life for America's senior citizens and to further the fields of gerontology and geriatrics. Her project is titled “Emergency Medicine Resident Education and Preparedness to Care for the Older Adult.” She will focus on development of 5 core topics in geriatrics essential to provide competent emergency care of elders. Two EM physicians were selected to receive Jahnigen Career Development awards from the American Geriatrics Society for 2008-2010. Jesse Pines will be studying “The effect of emergency department crowding on delirium in older adults, and Jeremiah Shuur will focus his research on “Developing emergency department quality of care indicators for community dwelling elders.” Congratulations to all awardees!
Ula Hwang, MD, MPH
Chair, SAEM Geriatrics Interest Group 2007-2008