Published Work by AGEM Members

 

AGEM Author Spotlight: Anita N Chary, MD, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine

Evaluating older adults with cognitive dysfunction: A qualitative study with emergency clinicians

 

Chary, Anita N., et al. "Evaluating older adults with cognitive dysfunction: A qualitative study with emergency clinicians." Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (2021).

https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.17581

 

 

Article Summary:  While collateral history-taking is a common practice, little is known about clinicians’ experiences and practices of obtaining collateral information on older adults with cognitive dysfunction in emergency settings. Our findings reveal challenges in emergency care settings related to availability of collateral information about an older adult’s cognitive baseline as well as clinicians’ time constraints. These challenges have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and have important implications for clinicians’ abilities to recognize delirium and distinguish delirium from dementia.  

Bio:   

Anita Chary, MD PhD, is an emergency physician and health services researcher at Baylor College of Medicine. She attended Washington University School of Medicine and served as chief resident at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency. Dr. Chary is an anthropologist whose research focuses on health disparities and healthcare delivery for vulnerable populations. Her international work includes development of child nutrition, women’s health, and specialty care referral programs in rural areas, and her domestic work centers on geriatric emergency medicine. She also focuses on improving health care delivery for vulnerable populations in the emergency department; prior work includes a program to create prepackaged to-go medications for homeless patients and initiatives to provide COVID-19 vaccination from the ED.

 

Twitter Handle @AnitaChary