The current state of geriatric medicine: a national survey of fellowship-trained geriatricians, 1990 to 1998

The rapid growth of the older population has focused national attention on the need for physicians trained in geriatric medicine. To gain insight into the evolving status of the field, with particular focus on career decision-making and academic career development of trainees, we conducted a survey of physicians recently completing geriatric fellowships. The 107 accredited extant geriatric fellowship programs in the United States and Puerto Rico were contacted to identify trainees from 1990 to 1998. A mailed survey addressed relevant career development and training issues. Four hundred ninety out of 787 (62%) physicians responded; 20% completed 1 year and 80% 2 or more years of training. Half made the decision to pursue a career in geriatrics during residency, 27% decided before/during medical school, and a mentor influenced 48%. Currently, 80% have a Certificate of Added Qualifications in geriatric medicine, 69% hold academic appointments, 78% teach, 39% participate in research, and 44% author publications. Most are doing predominantly clinical work in multiple settings. Further analysis of the 1996-to-1998 cohort revealed that those completing fellowships of 2 or more years are more likely to identify all geriatrics as their professional focus, conduct and author research, work with multidisciplinary teams, and participate in professional geriatric societies. This national survey documents career decision-making and the academic and clinical profiles of physicians completing geriatric fellowship training in the past decade. Longer fellowship training is associated with academic career development. Although there is a national need to train clinical geriatricians, the additional need to train and fund future geriatric academic leaders requires increased attention.     

Healthcare professional training: a comparison of geriatric competencies

Health professionals specializing in geriatrics are a unique but scarce resource who nevertheless play a critical role in shaping the care of older adults. An interdisciplinary didactic and clinical training milieu would have the potential to maximize training opportunities for geriatric healthcare professionals. The fact that little is known about the concordance between discipline-specific geriatric competencies hampers the creation of interdisciplinary geriatric training opportunities. Discipline-specific geriatric experts compared the geriatric competencies specified by geriatric-certifying bodies of five healthcare professions: dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work. Overlap and differences in geriatric competencies across disciplines are presented, and opportunities and barriers to interdisciplinary geriatric education are discussed.     

住院患者老年综合评估规范及初步效果分析

目的：探讨在老年住院患者中进行老年综合评估（CGA）对于老年人全面综合管理的作用。方法制定标准的CGA流程,采用标准流程对北京协和医院老年病房2013年9月至2014年9月连续入院的≥65岁患者进行CGA,分析其筛查老年综合征的效果。结果标准化的评估流程便于临床使用,接受评估的179例患者中,年龄（72.5±8.1）岁。通过CGA发现,视力异常患者占62.0%,睡眠障碍41.3%,听力异常40.8%,慢性疼痛34.6%,跌倒25.7%,多重用药23.5%,便秘21.8%,抑郁焦虑18.4%,尿失禁16.2%,谵妄10.6%。以不同主诉入院的15例患者最终诊断为老年综合征,占8.4%。结论老年综合征在老年患者中普遍存在,运用标准化的CGA方法可以进行有效筛查,有利于老年患者的全人管理。     

Functional impairment, race, and family expectations of death

OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of functional impairment on family expectations of death and to examine how this association varies by race. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Community based. PARTICIPANTS: Two thousand two hundred thirty-seven family members of decedents from the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), a national study of persons aged 50 and older. MEASUREMENTS: Families were interviewed within 2 years of the HRS participant's death. The primary outcome was whether death was expected. The primary predictors were the decedent's functional status (impairment in any activity of daily living (ADL; eating, dressing, transferring, toileting, or bathing) during the last 3 months of life and the decedent's race. RESULTS: Overall, 58% of families reported that their family member's death was expected. Expecting death was strongly associated with functional impairment; 71% of families of decedents with ADL disability expected death, compared with 24% of those without ADL disability (P < .01). Death was expected more often in families of white decedents (60%) than African Americans (49%) (P < .01), although the effect of ADL disability was similar in both groups. After adjustment for potentially confounding factors, there were still significant associations between expecting death and functional impairment (odds ratio (OR) = 3.58, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.73-4.70), and families of African Americans expected death less often than families of white decedents (OR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.46-0.86). CONCLUSION: Family members of older adults expected death only 58% of the time. Families of functionally impaired older people were more likely to expect death when it occurred than were families of older people who were not functionally impaired, and the expectation of death was lower for families of African Americans than for whites.     

Geriatrics training and education for nongeriatrician faculty: the Dean's Faculty Scholars in Aging Program

The University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia implemented the Dean's Faculty Scholars in Aging (DFSA) Program in 2001 to strengthen the knowledge of geriatrics of nongeriatrician faculty members. The primary indicator of strengthening physicians' geriatrics knowledge was the development of new educational experiences by physicians in the DFSA Program. Twenty-six nongeriatrician faculty in seven departments were recruited to participate as scholars. Most scholars were in key educational positions, including assistant deans, department chairs, and clerkship and residency directors. Scholars received special training to develop geriatrics educational experiences based on their medical specialty and interests. Training encouraged cross-departmental collaboration. Scholars also had access to resources, including professional geriatric educators. Funds were available to support development of educational experiences and for a small amount of salary support. Since the program was implemented, 36 new geriatric experiences have been developed, 29 of the 36 were implemented, and 11 of the 36 were evaluated. Experiences included an elective for residents in the care of older patients in the emergency room and a required hospice rotation in the psychiatry clerkship for third-year medical students. All scholars developed a geriatrics educational experience, and most implemented one. This suggests that scholars demonstrated successful progress in geriatrics training.     

老年住院患者的综合管理

衰老、共病、老年综合征、老年问题等多方面因素共同作用,影响老年人的健康情况和功能状态,需要进行全面的老年综合评估来发现老年住院患者各个方面的问题,针对可以处理、能够逆转的问题进行个体化的干预,才能使老年患者真正获益。除了针对入院疾病的诊疗之外,还要重视相关的老年问题,采取跨学科团队干预,可以有效地处理其健康问题,改善老年患者的功能状态、提高生活质量。     

The yield,reliability, and validity of a postal survey for screening community-dwelling older people

OBJECTIVES: To assess the yield, reliability, and validity of a postal survey developed to identify older persons in need of outpatient geriatric assessment and follow-up services. DESIGN: A longitudinal cohort study. SETTING: Outpatient primary care clinic at a Department of Veterans Affairs teaching ambulatory care center. PARTICIPANTS: Patients (N = 2,382) aged 65 and older who returned a Geriatric Postal Screening Survey (GPSS) that screened for common geriatric conditions (depression, cognitive impairment, urinary incontinence, falls, and functional status impairment). Validity and reliability testing was performed with subsamples of patients classified as high or lower risk based on responses to the GPSS. MEASUREMENTS: Test-retest reliability was measured by percentage agreement and kappa statistic. The diagnostic validity of the 10-item GPSS was tested by comparing single GPSS items to standardized geriatric assessment instruments for depression, mental status and functional status, as well as direct questions regarding falls, urinary incontinence, and use of medications. Validity was also tested against clinician evaluation of the specific geriatric conditions. Predictive validity was tested by comparing GPSS score with 1-year follow-up data on functional status, survival, and healthcare use. RESULTS: Respondents identified as high risk by the GPSS had scores that indicated significantly greater impairment on structured assessment instruments than those identified as lower risk by GPSS. The overall mean percentage agreement between the test and retest surveys was 88.3%, with a mean weighted kappa of 0.70. In comparison with a structured telephone interview and with a clinical assessment, individual items of the GPSS showed good accuracy (range 0.71-0.78) for identifying symptoms of depression, falls, and urinary incontinence. Over a 1-year follow-up period, the GPSS-identified high-risk group had significantly (P <.05) more hospital admissions, hospital days and nursing home admissions than the lower-risk group. CONCLUSION: A brief postal screening survey can successfully target patients for geriatric assessment services. In screening for symptoms of common geriatric conditions, the GPSS identified a subgroup of older outpatients with multiple geriatric syndromes who were at increased risk for hospital use and nursing home admission and who could potentially benefit from geriatric intervention.     

A National Survey on the Effect of the Geriatric Academic Career Award in Advancing Academic Geriatric Medicine

A workforce that understands principles of geriatric medicine is critical to addressing the care needs of the growing elderly population. This will be impossible without a substantial increase in academicians engaged in education and aging research. Limited support of early‐career clinician–educators is a major barrier to attaining this goal. The Geriatric Academic Career Award (GACA) was a vital resource that benefitted 222 junior faculty members. GACA availability was interrupted in 2006, followed by permanent discontinuation after the Geriatrics Workforce Education Program (GWEP) subsumed it in 2015, leaving aspiring clinician–educators with no similar alternatives. GACA recipients were surveyed in this cross‐sectional, multimethod study to assess the effect of the award on career development, creation and dissemination of educational products, funding discontinuation consequences, and implications of program closure for the future of geriatric health care. Uninterrupted funding resulted in fulfillment of GACA goals (94%) and overall career success (96%). Collectively, awardees reached more than 40,700 learners. Funding interruption led to 55% working additional hours over and above an increased clinical workload to continue their GACA‐related research and scholarship. Others terminated GACA projects (36%) or abandoned academic medicine altogether. Of respondents currently at GWEP sites (43%), only 13% report a GWEP budget including GACA‐like support. Those with GWEP roles attributed their current standing to experience gained through GACA funding. These consequences are alarming and represent a major setback to academic geriatrics. GACA's singular contribution to the mission of geriatric medicine must prompt vigorous efforts to restore it as a distinct funding opportunity.     

A randomized trial of a screening, case finding, and referral system for older veterans in primary care

OBJECTIVES: To test whether a system of screening, assessment, referral, and follow-up provided within primary care for high-risk older outpatients improves recognition of geriatric conditions and healthcare outcomes. DESIGN: Controlled clinical trial with 3-year follow-up; intervention versus control group allocation based on practice group assignment. SETTING: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ambulatory care center. PARTICIPANTS: Seven hundred ninety-two community-dwelling patients aged 65 and older identified by postal screening survey. INTERVENTION: The intervention combined a structured telephone geriatric assessment by a physician assistant, individualized referrals and recommendations, selected referral to outpatient geriatric assessment, and ongoing telephone case management. MEASUREMENTS: Main outcomes were VA medical record evidence of recognition and evaluation of target geriatric conditions (depression, cognitive impairment, urinary incontinence, falls, functional impairment), functional status (Functional Status Questionnaire, FSQ), and hospitalization (VA databases and self-reported non-VA usage). RESULTS: Intervention participants were more likely to have target conditions recognized, evaluated, and referred to specialized services within 12 months of enrollment, although there were no significant differences in FSQ scores or acute hospitalization between intervention and control groups at 1, 2, or 3 years follow-up. Subgroup analyses suggested improvements in depression symptoms and functional impairment at 1-year follow-up in intervention participants with these problems at baseline, but these findings were not evident at later follow-up. CONCLUSION: The intervention increased recognition and evaluation of target geriatric conditions but did not improve functional status or decrease hospitalization. Innovative screening methods can identify older people in need of geriatric services, but achieving measurable improvement in functional status or hospitalization rates will likely require a more-intensive intervention than a program involving primarily unsolicited referrals and short-term consultations.     

Continuing medical education, continuing professional development, and knowledge translation: improving care of older patients by practicing physicians

Many community-based internists and family physicians lack familiarity with geriatrics knowledge and best practices, but they face overwhelming fiscal and time barriers to expanding their skills and improving their behavior in the care of older people. Traditional lecture-and-slide-show continuing medical education (CME) programs have been shown to be relatively ineffective in changing this target group's practice. The challenge for geriatrics educators, then, is to devise CME programs that are highly accessible to practicing physicians, that will have an immediate and significant effect on practitioners' behavior, and that are financially viable. Studies of CME have shown that the most effective programs for knowledge translation in these circumstances involve what is known as active-mode learning, which relies on interactive, targeted, and multifaceted techniques. A systematic literature review, supplemented by structured interviews, was performed to inventory active-mode learning techniques for geriatrics knowledge and skills in the United States. Thirteen published articles met the criteria, and leaders of 28 active-mode CME programs were interviewed. This systematic review indicates that there is a substantial experience in geriatrics training for community-based physicians, much of which is unpublished and incompletely evaluated. It appears that the most effective methods to change behaviors involved multiple educational efforts such as written materials or toolkits combined with feedback and strong communication channels between instructors and learners.     

老年综合评估及多学科团队服务在老年共病干预中的应用

目的 探讨住院老年患者通过老年综合评估(CGA)及多学科团队服务(GITS)进行多维度诊疗,为老年患者提供科学、合理的个性化诊疗模式,有效改善共病诊疗效果及生活质量。方法 选取年龄≥60岁的老年科共病患者,分为观察组和对照组。使用自主开发的“老年综合评估软件V2.0”对210例老年患者入院7天内进行老年综合评估,随后观察组根据评估结果给予共病、老年综合征、心理、认知及生活方式等全面综合干预,对照组仅给予共病干预。干预3个月后行第2次老年综合评估,比较观察组与对照组共病及生活质量改善情况。结果 (1)观察组比对照组血压、血糖控制效果更好(P<0.05),观察组比对照组慢性心衰急性加重、慢性阻塞性肺疾病急性加重发生人数减少(P<0.05)。(2)老年综合征及生活质量：观察组比对照组Barthel指数得分及MMSE得分显著提高(P<0.05),观察组比对照组营养、抑郁、焦虑、跌倒、衰弱均有显著改善(P<0.05),因促眠药物的应用观察组与对照组睡眠障碍均有改善,改善程度无显著差异(P>0.05)。结论 老年患者住院期间进行老年综合评估并结合多学科团队服务,可以及...     

Geriatric medicine and geriatric psychiatry clinical services affiliated with U.S. academic medical centers

U.S. academic medical centers are providing many geriatric medicine (GM) and geriatric psychiatry (GP) clinical services at Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and non-VHA sites. This article describes the distribution and scope of GM and GP clinical services being provided. Academic GM leaders of the 146 U.S. allopathic and osteopathic medical schools were surveyed online in the spring of 2004. One hundred four program directors (71.2%) responded. These medical schools provided 1,325 GM and 376 GP clinical services, which included 654 VHA and 1,014 non-VHA GM and GP services, affiliation with 21 Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, and 12 other specialized services. The mean number+/-standard deviation of distinct clinical services at each medical center was 16.4+/-8.2. More geriatrics faculty full-time equivalents, more time spent on training fellows, and designation as a GM Center of Excellence were associated with providing a wider range of geriatric clinical services. Using data from the survey, the first directory of GM and GP clinical services at academic medical centers was created (http://www.ADGAPSTUDY.uc.edu).     

Geriatric syndromes: clinical, research, and policy implications of a core geriatric concept

Geriatricians have embraced the term "geriatric syndrome," using it extensively to highlight the unique features of common health conditions in older people. Geriatric syndromes, such as delirium, falls, incontinence, and frailty, are highly prevalent, multifactorial, and associated with substantial morbidity and poor outcomes. Nevertheless, this central geriatric concept has remained poorly defined. This article reviews criteria for defining geriatric syndromes and proposes a balanced approach of developing preliminary criteria based on peer-reviewed evidence. Based on a review of the literature, four shared risk factors-older age, baseline cognitive impairment, baseline functional impairment, and impaired mobility-were identified across five common geriatric syndromes (pressure ulcers, incontinence, falls, functional decline, and delirium). Understanding basic mechanisms involved in geriatric syndromes will be critical to advancing research and developing targeted therapeutic options, although given the complexity of these multifactorial conditions, attempts to define relevant mechanisms will need to incorporate more-complex models, including a focus on synergistic interactions between different risk factors. Finally, major barriers have been identified in translating research advances, such as preventive strategies of proven effectiveness for delirium and falls, into clinical practice and policy initiatives. National strategic initiatives are required to overcome barriers and to achieve clinical, research, and policy advances that will improve quality of life for older persons.     

National survey of geriatric medicine fellowship programs: comparing findings in 2006/07 and 2001/02 from the American Geriatrics Society and Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs Geriatrics Workforce Policy Studies Center

This article documents the development of geriatric medicine fellowship training in the United States through 2009. Results from a national cross-sectional survey of all geriatric medicine fellowship training programs conducted in 2007 is compared with results from a similar survey in 2002. Secondary data sources were used to supplement the survey results. The 2007 survey response rate was 71%. Sixty-seven percent of responding programs directors have completed formal geriatric medicine fellowship training and are board certified in geriatrics, and 29% are board certified through the practice pathway. The number of Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited fellowship programs has slowly increased, from 120 (23 family medicine (FM) and 97 internal medicine (IM)) in 2001/02 to 145 in 2008/09 (40 FM and 105 IM), resulting in a 21% increase in fellowship programs and a 13% increase in the number of first-year fellows (259 to 293). In 2008/09, the growth in programs and first-year slots, combined with the weak demand for geriatrics training, resulted in more than one-third of first-year fellow positions being unfilled. The number of advanced fellows decreased slightly from 72 in 2001/00 to 65 in 2006/07. In 2006/07, 55% of the advanced fellows were enrolled at four training programs. In 2008/09, 66% of fellows were international medical school graduates. The small numbers of graduating geriatric medicine fellows are insufficient to care for the expanding population of older frail patients, train other disciples in the care of complex older adults, conduct research in aging, and be leaders in the field.     

Community Physicians' Knowledge on Basic Health Care for Elderly Persons in Israel: Comparing Findings From 2006 to 1996

Community physicians should be knowledgeable of basic geriatrics to cope with the challenges posed by the growing number of older patients and their complex needs. A survey of knowledge in basic health care for elderly persons, carried out by our team in 1996, revealed that it was insufficient. The authors repeated this survey in 2006, by using the same methodology, namely, a mailed questionnaire sent to 500 randomly sampled community physicians. No significant changes were found after this 10-year period. Likewise, no difference was evidenced between physicians that participated in geriatric training of any kind and those who did not. This lack of change requires health system leaders to coordinate their efforts and develop efficient teaching programs to prevent similar findings 10 years from now.     

通过老年综合评估分析北京市社区老年人的营养状况

目的通过包括微型营养评定简表(MNA-SF)、慢病、生活方式以及其他老年问题的老年综合评估(CGA),了解北京市老年人营养状况及其影响因素。方法对北京市朝阳区4个社区941例≥65岁、同意接受调查的老年人进行面对面调查。结果 4个社区老人年龄(75.8±7.0)岁,中位年龄76岁;体质量指数(BMI)(23.8±4.2)kg/m~2。MNA-SF提示营养不良(0~7分)34例,占3.6%,营养不良风险(8~11分)407例,占43.3%,营养问题总计441例(46.9%)。营养问题的风险因素有:≥85岁(χ~2=9.65,P=0.002)、女性(χ~2=6.82,P=0.01)、单身(χ~2=5.63,P=0.02)、仍工作(χ~2=4.36,P=0.04)、合并≥3种慢病(χ~2=3.71,P=0.05)及患慢性肺病(χ~2=5.21,P=0.02)。结论营养问题是社区常见的老年问题,建议加强教育,将营养筛查与评估纳入常规健康查体,尤其应关注高龄及共病老人。