Geriatrics: Moving forward with 2020 vision

Geriatricians have long debated the parameters, positioning, and prospects of their specialty. The year 2020 started full of promise as many organizations anticipated assessing themselves using perfect, or 2020, vision. While challenging on several levels, the momentous combination of events in 2020—the COVID-19 pandemic, Racial Justice Movement, and the November elections—provided Geriatric Medicine several opportunities to firmly secure a position in the mainstream. As we reflect on the new perspectives, programs, and partnerships initiated in 2020, five broader lessons emerge that can help safeguard the future of Geriatrics: the field could employ more intentional “direct to consumer” marketing strategies, expand the scope of what it means to be a patient advocate, pursue new strategic partnerships, take the opportunity to address racial injustice, and leverage existing skillsets to expand scope of care for patients. Given the interdisciplinary nature of Geriatrics, it is fitting that many of these lessons build upon this collaborative philosophy and are derived from domains outside of health care. So in an unexpected way, the events of 2020 may actually help Geriatrics see, with 2020 vision, how to remain mainstream. With this new clarity, Geriatrics holds renewed promise to truly become specialists in whole-person care and it is our hope that, with insight from the lessons shared here, the specialty brings this vision to fruition in the current decade and beyond.     

Looking back,moving forward: A practical guide to implementing the updated ACGME geriatric medicine Milestones 2.0

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) developed the Milestones as a tool to aid trainee assessment based on the framework of the six core competencies of practice. Variability in the interpretation and application of the original Milestones prompted the ACGME to convene work groups within the different specialties and subspecialties to update the Milestones. The Geriatric Medicine work group was convened in 2019 with the goal of clarifying and simplifying the language of the Milestones, revising content to be specific to geriatrics, and developing supplemental resources to aid in implementation and use. We suggest using a practical, four-step process to implement the updated Milestones, called the Milestones 2.0, in fellowship programs by: (1) training faculty in the use of the Milestones 2.0, including an overview of the background and updates, (2) mapping the Milestones 2.0 to existing assessments, (3) educating fellows about the Milestones 2.0 and (4) presenting and discussing the Milestones 2.0 at Clinical Competency Committee meetings. This systematic approach promotes the development of a shared mental model for trainee assessments.