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Geriatric News Items for the week of April 30, 2012 A new survey of older adults has demonstrated that a large number of older Americans are experiencing gaps in their primary care. The results are listed in John A. Harford Foundation the posting titled, “How Does It Feel? The Older Adult Health Care Experience”. To help with this troubling trend, Carla Perissinotto spends one day a week precepting Primary Care residents in the General Medicine clinics at UCSF to help improve their ability to care for frail older adults. In addition, with guidance from Carla Perissinotto and Eric Widera the four clinical fellows Anna Chodos, Jackie Yuen, Dandan Liu and Jackie Yuen taught an afternoon session for the UCSF Internal Medicine at a resident education focusing on the care of complex elders. Topics discussed included, polypharmacy, conducing a functional assessment, cognitive assessment, polypharmacy review and screening and chronic care management in frail patients. Dr. Perissinotto and Dr. Widera are Assistant Professors of Medicine with the Division of Geriatrics.   What term should we use to describe the population of people we care for and study? Elders? Older adults? Seniors? Alex Smith was interviewed for his thoughts about aging terminology for the New York Times New Old Age Blog. The New York Times post, which received over 200 comments, was based on a post Dr. Smith wrote for GeriPal. Alex Smith presented about ePrognosis to the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C on March 27th. The topic of the session was Aging and the Costs of End of Life Care. Dr. Smith spoke after UCSF’s Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, a Nobel laureate who studies the relationship between telomere length and morbidity/mortality. Questions focused on the tension between research aimed at prolonging life and research focused on caring for persons living with chronic conditions, dementia, and disability. Dr. Smith is an Assistant Professor of Medicine with the Division of Geriatrics.   Michael Steinman, MD published a letter to the editor in the New York Times related to a recent update of the Beers Criteria, a consensus list of drugs that are potentially inappropriate for older adults. Dr. Steinman served on an expert panel convened by the American Geriatrics Society to update the list and support its implementation. Dr. Steinman is an Associate Professor of Medicine with the Division of Geriatrics. Read Dr. Steinman’s Letter to the editor. Information on the Beers Criteria, including clinician tools and public education resources.   Geriatric News Items for the week of April 23, 2012 Division of Geriatrics faculty nominated the UC Home Health Team for the Excellence in Nursing Award and nominated Hannah Atkinson RN for the Excellence in Home Health Award. Hannah Atkinson who was nominated by Helen Kao, MD and Josette Rivera, MD was selected as the recipient for the Home Health Award.   Anna Chang, MD was featured in the 2012 issue of the Academy magazine. The Member Focus piece highlights Dr. Chang’s many valuable contributions to undergraduate medical education as the director of the Foundations of Patient Care course for first- and second-year medical students and as the leader of the Clinical Skills Guidance Program for students in the third and fourth years. The Academy is a published annually by the UCSF Academy of Medical Educators. Dr. Chang is an Associate Professor of Medicine with the Division of Geriatrics. Dr. Chang, right, with student.   Geriatric News Items for the week of April 16, 2012 Apply Now! The Challenge of Providing Quality Care for Older Adults: Preparing the Health Professions for the Aging Century An Interprofessional Faculty Development Course Sept 2012- May 2013 Develop your expertise to teach the next generation of health professionals about best practices in the care of older adults and enhance your ability to lead the way in education, practice and health systems change. ♦Intensive Seminars ♦ Mentored Projects ♦Collaborative Learning ♦ Leadership & Career Development Course Co-Directors: Louise Aronson, MD, MFA, and Lynda A. Mackin, RN, PhD, GNP-BC, ANP-BC, CNS Associate Directors: Susan Hyde, DDS, MPH, PhD; Kirby Lee, PharmD and Desi Owens, LCSW Presented by: The NorCal Geriatric Education Center, University of California San Francisco Application deadline: May 15, 2012   Eric Widera and Alex Smith (Co-founders of GeriPal and both Assistant Professors in the Division of Geriatrics) have been identified as among the top 50 physician-tweeters!  Read More   Eric Widera will participate as an expert guest for a communications consultancy on social media available to Hartford grantees. Dr. Widera will join a small group of Hartford Foundation grantees and colleagues to discuss how to build a social media community and  use electronic media to promote your research or career. The group will also share and discuss social media challenges. Dr. Widera is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatrics   Geriatric News Items for the week of April 9, 2012 Mike Steinman was featured in a story that aired on National Public Radio’s Weekend All Thing Considered about the Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults.  Dr. Steinman served on an American Geriatrics Society interdisciplinary expert panel that updated this widely-cited list of medications that should be used with caution in older adults. Listen to the story that aired Dr. Steinman is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics.   Anna Chodos was recently featured on KQED Perspectives discussing how a fall for seniors is more serious than a simple bump or scrape. Listen to the Perspectives piece Dr. Chodos is a Geriatric Fellow in the Division of Geriatrics.   Geriatric News Items for the week of April 2, 2012 Christine S. Ritchie, MD, MSPH, joined the UCSF Division of Geriatrics on March 12, 2012 and was appointed as the first recipient of the Harris Fishbon Distinguished Professorship in Clinical Translational Research in Aging. She will lead the development of a research program at UCSF to improve the care and quality of life of older adults, by translating research findings into clinical benefits for older adults with serious illnesses. Dr. Ritchie’s research program is located at the Jewish Home of San Francisco. Dr. Ritchie is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Medical School, Chapel Hill. She completed her training in internal medicine, and earned a fellowship in geriatric medicine from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and a Master of Science in Public Health. Dr. Ritchie relocated to the West Coast from the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she was Professor of Medicine, Director of the Center for Palliative and Supportive Care, Director of the Palliative and Supportive Care Section, Director of UAB's Donald W. Reynolds Foundation Comprehensive Program to Improve Geriatric Care, Director of the Advanced Illness and Multimorbidity Research Program, and Principal Investigator of the UAB multidisciplinary Geriatric Education Center. Her research focuses on advanced illness and multimorbidity, care transitions, supportive care in cancer and other serious illnesses, and informatics and emerging technology in chronic disease management.   Ken Covinsky, MD was quoted in the New York Times, The New Old Age, in a piece titled, “After Hospitalization, Mental Trouble for Elderly Patients,” and gives his perspectives on new research that reveals a higher risk of cognitive problems after elder patients have been hospitalized. “It’s already known that a hospital stay can interfere with an older person’s physical functioning and ability to perform the so-called activities of daily living — bathing, toileting, dressing and so on… What this new research does is add another layer and show that there’s also this cognitive loss that’s occurring,” — said Dr. Kenneth Covinsky, Professor of Geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.   The Division of Geriatrics' online efforts were noted in a New York Times article titled, “Among Doctors, Fierce Reluctance to Let Go.” The piece references the GeriPal blog, a Geriatrics and Palliative care forum which is published by Alex Smith and Eric Widera. Drs. Smith and Widera are Assistant Professors in the Division of Geriatrics. Geriatric News Items for the week of March 26, 2012 From April 10 – 13, UCSF will simulcast TEDMed, an offshoot of the popular TED conference series that addresses innovations in health and medicine to the Parnassus and Mission Bay Conferences. TEDMED will feature about 50 speakers in all, representing a variety of fields including medicine, science, business, education, technology, media, government and the arts. It will also focus on Twenty Great Challenges of Health and Medicine such as “Coming to Grips with End of Life Care,” “Preparing for the Dementia Tsunami,” and other critical topics in Geriatrics. The UCSF simulcast, which will include discussion by a diverse group of UCSF faculty and students as well as School of Medicine Dean Sam Hawgood, is hosted by the Pathways to Discovery program led by Louise Aronson, Associate Professor in the Division of Geriatrics and Director of the UCSF Pathways to Discovery program. Geriatric News Items for the week of March 19, 2012 Sei Lee, Alex Smith, and Veronica Rivera are featured in a video on the University of California’s Research Page for their work on prognosis.  The piece is titled, “Assessing life expectancy in older adults.”  View video Drs. Alex Smith and Sei Lee are Assistant Professors in the Division of Geriatrics. Dr. Rivera is a Clinical Fellow with the Division of Geriatrics.   Michael Steinman, M.D. was lead author in a "Perspective" in the March 22nd edition of the New England Journal of Medicine titled "Industry Support of CME — Are We at the Tipping Point?" Steinman and co authors Seth Landefeld, M.D., and Robert Baron, M.D. discuss how public scrutiny and the threat of government regulation are leading to a decline in industry-sponsored funding of accredited continuing medical education (CME) for physicians, and this decline represents an opportunity to make CME more relevant, cost-effective and less open to bias. Dr. Steinman is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics. Dr. Dr. Landefeld is Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of Geriatrics.   The UCSF LEAP Critical Reflection Guidelines, developed by Louise Aronson, Brian Niehaus, Marieke Kruidering, and Patricia O’Sullivan, were the top featured article in the Association of American Medical College’s MedEdPORTAL this month. LEAP stands for Learning from your Experiences as a Professional. The guidelines now used for training in critical reflection and lifelong learning by over thirty medical schools in the United States and internationally. Louise Aronson is an Associate Professor in the Division of Geriatrics and Director of the UCSF Pathways to Discovery program which trains the next generation of health care researchers, innovators, and leaders.   Rebecca Conant, MD was featured in a CBS News HealthWatch segment discussing how older adults can improve their aging process. “People who stay connected with their communities, who have relationships that keep them active and involved, do better over time,” said Conant. Dr. Conant touches on one of the many topics that will be discussed on Thursday March 22 at the fifth annual “Art of Aging Gracefully” Resource Fair", sponsored by The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. The event is free and open to the public. Dr. Conant is an Associate Professor of Medicine with the Division of Geriatrics. View Healthwatch Segment   Cynthia So and Dr. Edgar Pierluissi present their study, “Attitudes and Expectations Regarding Exercise in the Hospital Among Hospitalized Older Adults: a Qualitative Study,” in a paper published in the March online issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.  Hospitalized older adults frequently suffer functional decline while in hospital that can be mitigated with exercise. This study demonstrates that while hospitalized older adults have positive attitudes about in-hospital exercise and are influenced by suggestions from medical professionals to exercise, they must overcome significant barriers to exercising and medical professional infrequently address the issue. The authors make practical recommendations that hospitals can use to increase exercise of older adults. Cynthia So is a third year medical student at UCSF and conducted her work while a UCSF Summer Research Fellow before starting medical school. Dr. Pierluissi is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Hospital Medicine and Medical Director, Acute Care for Elders (ACE) Unit at San Francisco General Hospital.   Geriatric News Items for the week of March 12, 2012 Cary Sweeney, MS, Program Manager with the NorCal GEC, UCSF Geriatrics Division, recently presented a poster at the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) annual conference in Arlington, Va. The poster highlighted  successes of the UCSF Interprofessional Aging and Palliative Care (IAPC) Elective, developed by Dr. Louise Aronson, directed by Dr. Josette Rivera and coordinated by Cary.  The theme of the conference was “Engaging Aging in Higher Education.” Cary presented the IAPC elective as a successful model for increasing enrollment in a geriatrics student elective. The attendees were particularly interested in how the course provides flexible course structure, allowing students to choose from a menu of learning activities for credit, and enlisting student "ambassadors" from each school to recruit students for enrollment. The elective is also co-led by Lynda Mackin in the School of Nursing, Kirby Lee in the School of Pharmacy, and Susan Hyde in the School of Dentistry.   Geriatric News Items for the week of March 5, 2012 Angel Chen, RN, MSN, CPNP; Josette Rivera, MD; and Nicole DeButts, RN, MS, PNP have just been awarded a Clinical Nursing Research Award from the UCSF School of Nursing to identify methods used by medicine and advanced practice nursing faculty preceptors to teach interprofessional teamwork in clinical settings. Josette Rivera, MD is and Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatrics.   The John A. Hartford Foundation has awarded its largest Center of Excellence grant to the UCSF Hartford Center of Excellence in Academic Geriatrics.  The Hartford Foundation supports 28 Centers of Excellence in leading US medical schools.  The Foundation’s 1-year grant of $240,000 to UCSF is nearly 3 times the size of its average grant.  The UCSF Center of Excellence will support 10 Hartford Scholars:  Rebecca Brown, Anna Chodos, Lynn Flint, Dandan Liu, John Newman, Carla Perissinotto , Josette Rivera, Veronica Rivera, Margarita Sotelo, and Jackie Yuen.  Hartford Scholars are junior faculty and post-doctoral trainees who were selected in a national competition for their promise to become leaders in Academic Geriatrics. The UCSF Hartford Scholars will be mentored by teams drawn from over a dozen faculty, including Louise Aronson, Calvin Chou, Ken Covinsky, Mike Harper, Helen Kao, Seth Landefeld, Edgar Pierluissi, Stephanie Rennke, Mike Steinman, Eric Verdin, Eric Widera, Brie Williams, and Michi Yukawa. The John A. Hartford Foundation is the largest private funder committed solely to programs in geriatric medicine, nursing, and social work.  Based in New York City, the Hartford Foundation was founded in 1929 with bequests from John A. and George L. Hartford, former chief executives of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company.  The UCSF Center of Excellence has been continuously funded since 1998 and is directed by Seth Landefeld, Chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Associate Chair of the Department of Medicine.   Alex Smith, Sei Lee, and palliative care fellow Katherine Aragon were interviewed for an NPR story called “Can knowing when you’ll die help you live?”  The story aired on KALW 91.7FM, a local public radio station. Drs. Alex Smith and Sei Lee are Assistant Professors in the Division of Geriatrics. Dr. Katherine Aragon is a Palliative Care Fellow at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Read or listen to this story   Geriatric News Items for the week of February 20, 2012 Congratulations to Rebecca Sudore who has been named the SGIM Outstanding Junior Investigator of the Year. Dr. Sudore was selected from an outstanding group of finalists in the field of academic general internal medicine and this award places her among the very best researchers in general medicine. The award will be recognized at the lunchtime banquet on Friday, May 11th at the SGIM Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Sudore is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Staff Physicians at the SFVAMC. Alex Smith and Lindsey Yourman were featured in a USA Today article about their systematic review of prognostic indices for older adults, and ePrognosis.  The story includes commentary from David Reuben (UCLA), David Casarett (University of Pennsylvania) and Diane Meier (Mt. Sinai).  Alex was also interviewed about palliative care last week on KQED Forum with Michael Crasny. Lindsey Yourman is an intern at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego and former UCSF Medical Student. Dr. Alex Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatrics. USA Today Article KQED Interview Geriatric News Items for the week of February 13, 2012 Rebecca Sudore, MD gave a talk about her work to improve advance care planning and to better prepare patients and their surrogate decision makers to make complex, ongoing medical decisions at the Annual Coalition for Compassionate Care of California conference in San Diego, February 15th. The coalition is a statewide partnership of organizations, state agencies, and individuals working to promote high-quality, compassionate care for seriously-ill Californians. The audience included physicians, nurses, attorneys, social workers, chaplains, psychologists, bioethicists, and policy makers. Dr. Sudore presented her new interactive, multi-media website called PREPARE that is designed to teach patients and surrogates how to prepare for medical decision making and help them engage in advance care planning. Efficacy testing of PREPARE in a randomized trial is currently underway. Dr. Sudore is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Staff Physicians at the SFVAMC.   UCSF Medical Student Vivien Sun was awarded the Henderson Student Award by the American Geriatrics Society.  This award, bestowed upon one medical student each year, reflects excellence in geriatrics and scholarship related to the care of older patients, and recognizes her research under the mentorship of Division faculty member Brie Williams on a research project entitled “How Safe is Your Neighborhood? Perceived neighborhood safety and its association with functional decline and mortality in older adults.” Vivien conducted her research under the auspices of UCSF’s Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) program, a summer program in aging research funded by NIH and the American Federation for Aging Research.   Congratulations to our friend and colleague Sara J. Knight, Ph.D.!  Dr. Knight has accepted the position of Deputy Director of VA's Health Services Research and Development Service (HSR&D) in Washington, DC; she is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UCSF and Acting Director of HSR&D's "Program to Improve Care for Veterans with Complex Comorbid Conditions" at San Francisco VAMC.  Dr. Knight officially assumes her Deputy Director responsibilities on March 11, 2012.   Congratulations to Rebecca Sudore for winning the award for best faculty research presentation at the Society of General Internal Medicine California/Hawaii Regional Meeting. Dr. Sudore’s presentation on “Preparing for Medical Decision Making Beyond Advance Directives: Perspectives from Patients and Surrogates”, was among many superb candidates but judges rated her work the best in its class. Dr. Sudore is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Staff Physicians at the SFVAMC.   Brie Williams, MD, recently delivered a talk on aging and health to 40 professionals from the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. The event marked another in a series of on-site trainings Dr. Williams is delivering to prepare criminal justice professionals for the increasing number of older adults involved in the criminal justice system. Attendees consisted primarily of attorneys working in the Public Defender’s office. Cyrus Ahalt joined Dr. Williams in delivering the training and facilitating the question and answer session that followed. Dr. Williams is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Associate Director of the Program for the Aging Century at UCSF. Cyrus Ahalt, MPP is a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Division of Geriatrics.   Cyrus Ahalt, MPP, has been awarded a fellowship from the NIDA and the Jacob and Victoria Langeloth Foundation to attend the 5th Academic and Health Policy Conference on Correctional Health in Atlanta, GA March 21 - March 23, where he will present a poster for his paper, "Confined to Ignorance: The absence of prisoners from U.S. national health data." Other UCSF Division of Geriatrics collaborators include senior-author Dr. Brie Williams and co-author Dr. Michael Steinman. Cyrus Ahalt is a clinical research coordinator with the Division of Geriatrics with a Masters in Public Policy. Dr. Williams is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and the Associate Director of the Program for the Aging Century. Dr. Steinman is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics.   Division of Geriatrics Research Assistant Carolyn Peterson has been accepted to graduate school for a PhD program in counseling.  She will matriculate in fall 2012.  Congratulations Carolyn!   Geriatric News Items for the week of January 23, 2012 Louise Walter, MD has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) for her research to improve cancer screening in older patients.  Dr. Walter was the first to suggest that cancer screening will not benefit older people with serious limitation in life expectancy - because cancer screening saves lives from cancer only in the long run (>5 years), and most older people with shortened life expectancy don't live that long. Election to ASCI is the highest honor for U.S. physician-researchers who are less than 45 years old.  Dr. Walter is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics, which may now be the only Division of Geriatrics to have 3 members of ASCI.  Janice B. Schwartz, MD (Professor of Medicine) has been named the 2012 recipient of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) William B. Abrams Award for Geriatric Clinical Pharmacology  Dr. Schwartz’s research seeks to understand why and when the effects of pharmacological agents are different in older individuals compared to younger individuals.  Dr. Schwartz also serves as Director of Research for the Jewish Home of San Francisco. Drs. Bonnie Chen, Brie Williams, Ken Covinsky and Nancy Adler, with Irena Stijacic-Cenzer, published a paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine exploring the relationship between subjective social status and health outcomes including functional decline. Their paper, based on a review of data from the Health and Retirement Study, concluded that older adults who self-identify in the lowest rungs of social status are at particularly high risk for functional decline and death.  Particularly because this remained true even when adjusting for traditional objective measures of socioeconomic status, the data for this paper suggest that subjective social status may serve as a simple tool providers can use to assess their older patients’ socioeconomic status and subsequent risk for functional decline. Dr. Chen will be a Fellow in Palliative Care at Harvard starting in July 2012. Dr. Williams is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Associate Director of the Program for the Aging Century. Dr. Covinsky is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics, Edmund G. Brown Sr., Distinguished Professorship in Geriatrics. Irena Stijacic-Cenzer is a senior statistician with the Divsion of Geriatrics. Geriatric News Items for the week of January 16, 2012   Brie Williams, MD, recently delivered a talk on aging and health to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office as part of their Distinguished Visitor lecture series. Dr. William’s presentation was part of larger training program she’s conducting to prepare criminal justice professionals for the increasing number of older adults involved in the criminal justice system as offenders, victims, or witnesses. Attendees included current and retired District Attorneys, attorneys from the elder abuse division, victim and witness advocates, and lawyers for the San Francisco Police Department. Tacara Soones and Cyrus Ahalt joined Dr. Williams in facilitating the training. Dr. Williams is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Associate Director of the Program for the Aging Century. Tacara Soones, MD, is a resident in the Department of Medicine and is collaborating with Dr. Williams on research to examine how the medical and legal communities interact around issues of aging. Cyrus Ahalt, MPP, is a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Division of Geriatrics. The Interprofessional Aging and Palliative Care Student Interest Group is thriving! UCSF medical, nursing, pharmacy, and physical therapy students interested in geriatric and palliative care meet monthly to design interactive activities, organize speakers, and run the Interprofessional Aging and Palliative Care elective. A variety of additional events are in the works. This fun, dynamic group is open to new members and new ideas. Interested students should contact Lena Driscoll for more information. The faculty advisor is Josette Rivera, MD. Dr. Rivera is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics. ePrognosis is a website with tools for calculating prognosis developed  in the Division of Geriatrics by Drs. Lindsey Yourman, Sei Lee, Eric Widera, and Alex Smith and with the assistance of Cyrus Ahalt. ePrognosis has received loads of press coverage which started with the JAMA Article on which Alex Smith is senior author, then it went into several New York times articles and it has inspired yet another New York times article titled, “Why Doctors Can’t Predict How Long a Patient Will Live.” The ePrognosis website already has over a half a million page views in its one week of existence! Lindsey Yourman is an intern at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego and former UCSF Medical Student. Drs. Sei Lee, Alex Smith and Eric Widera are Assistant Professors in the Division of Geriatrics. Cyrus Ahalt, MPP, is a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Division of Geriatrics. Rebecca Brown, MD, a research fellow in the Division of Geriatrics, published a paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine describing the high rate of geriatric syndromes in older homeless adults. The issue includes an editorial by Margot Kushel, MD, discussing the importance of providing supportive housing for this vulnerable older population. A group from the Division published a review of prognostic indices for older adults in JAMA last week. Lindsey Yourman, who took a year off from UCSF medical school to work on the project, is first author. Other division authors include Sei Lee, Eric Widera, and Alex Smith. With help from Cyrus Ahalt, they concurrently launched a website called ePrognosis, viewable at www.eprognosis.org, that compiles the 16 reviewed indices into an easy to sort through and use set of online calculators.  Look for coverage about ePrognosis in the New York Times and other papers! Lindsey Yourman is an intern at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego and former UCSF Medical Student. Drs. Sei Lee, Alex Smith and Eric Widera are Assistant Professors in the Division of Geriatrics. Cyrus Ahalt, MPP, is a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Division of Geriatrics. 2011 Awardees visit to Legion of Honor   The UCSF Division of Geriatrics is excited to announce the second annual Geriatrics Scholarship Award Summit open to ACGME interns and residents in Internal Medicine or Family Medicine. The goal of the Award is to stimulate interest in a career in academic geriatrics by recognizing residents' scholarly or research achievements in aging or geriatrics. Each award carries with it a cash prize of $500 plus a stipend to cover travel and lodging in San Francisco to present at a special award summit on June 7th-8th, 2012. The deadline for applications is April 1st, 2012.   For details of the award and to download the application: click here   Geriatric News Items for the week of January 9, 2012 Edgar Pierluissi, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Medical Director, Acute Care for Elders (ACE) Unit at SFGH, will be featured in a national telephone conference on “Two Key ACE Interventions: patient-centered interdisciplinary care & medical care review." This national conference call is scheduled for Tuesday, January 17, 2012, from noon - 1pm, Central Time. The goal of the call is to hear about ACE units at several sites from across North America. Dr. Pierluissi will provide his expertise in his summary teaching points and discuss the challenges of developing and managing an ACE Program.   Geriatric News Items for the week of January 2, 2012 Josette, Rivera, MD, Assistant Professor, and Michi Yukawa, MD, Associate Professor, in the Division of Geriatrics recently gave plenary session presentations at the Institute on Aging Health Professionals Education Conference entitled “Falls Prevention in Older Adults: A Multidisciplinary Approach for Maintaining Independence”.  Dr. Rivera spoke on “Fall Risk and Prevention” and Dr. Yukawa followed with “Hip Fractures: Risk, Prevention and Outcomes”. The full-day conference in San Francisco was attended by over 100 health professionals from multiple disciplines. The Division’s NorCal Geriatric Education Center, led by Louise Aronson, MD, Associate Professor in the Division of Geriatrics, collaborates with IOA on two conferences each year to provide interprofessional continuing education to improve the care of vulnerable older adults.   Alex Smith, MD was featured in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in a piece titled, “The Unspoken Diagnosis: Old Age”, and gives his perspectives on discussing prognosis with very elderly patients who may not have a dominant terminal condition. “The point of the article is to get a national conversation started about this,” says Dr. Smith who is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the UCSF Division of Geriatrics and a Staff Physician at the San Francisco VA. Dr. Smith invites readers to join in the conversation comments section.     John Newman (a research fellow at UCSF’s Division of Geriatrics) and Robin Feldman, a professor of law at the University of California Hastings, were featured in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) perspectives piece titled “Copyright and Open Access at the Bedside”  Dr. Newman  and Robin Feldman discuss the serious issues about copyright laws and their affects on medicine.	Grand Rounds April 2012 Topic: "Challenges Facing The Medicare Program" Speaker: Albert Siu, MD Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York Ellen and Howard C. Katz Chairman's Chair of the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Professor & Chair, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Professor Health Evidence and Policy Professor Medicine, General Internal Medicine Date: April 25, 2012 Time: 5:00 pm Lecture, 6:00 pm Wine and Cheese Reception Location: HSW-303 Access recordings of past lectures The Challenge of Providing Quality Care for Older Adults: Preparing the Health Professions for the Aging Century Sept 2012- May 2013 An Interprofessional Faculty Development Course Course Co-Directors: Louise Aronson, MD, MFA, and Lynda Mackin, PhD, ANP-BC Associate Directors: Susan Hyde, DDS, MPH, PhD; Kirby Lee, PharmD and Desi Owens, LCSW ♦Intensive Seminars ♦ Mentored Projects ♦Collaborative Learning ♦ Leadership & Career Development presented by The NorCal Geriatric Education Center, University of California San Francisco Develop your expertise to teach the next generation of health professionals about best practices in the care of older adults and enhance your ability to lead the way in education, practice and health systems change. learn more More Division News Aging in the News GeriPal- A Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog is a forum for discourse, recent news and research, and freethinking commentary   JAMA Series Care of the Aging Patient The editorial team for the Journal of the American Medical Association series, Care of the Aging Patient: From Evidence to Action invites you to contribute a patient story to inspire a future article. This series is produced by a UCSF Division of Geriatrics  editorial team and appears bi-monthly in JAMA. Contributors whose Patient Story is selected for an article will be acknowledged in JAMA and will receive a $500 honorarium. In addition, the editorial team can provide a letter confirming this peer-reviewed contribution.