Geriatric Medicine Section News

2024 Section News

Check out this Article- What Getting a Trendy Body Scan Taught Me About Myself

What Getting a Trendy Body Scan Taught Me About Myself

BY MAYA SINGER

July 23, 2024

 

https://www.vogue.com/article/full-picture

Washington Post: Dear Body, you’ve served me well, but let’s get to your annual review (Deborah Kado)

Dear Body, you’ve served me well, but let’s get to your annual review

‘The first step before you take inventory of your body is to decide that you care about living a long, healthy life,’ one expert says.

 

Link to article.

ShapeCenter for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation

As of April 2024, Stanford Geriatrics though Stanford Healthcare has been awarded the opportunity to participate as a new program in the CMS Innovation Center’s Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model.  

Section of Geriatrics at SGIM CA-HI regional meeting

The Geriatrics had a large showing at SGIM CA-HI regional meeting in San Francisco, CA on 1/27/24. .

Dr Silvia Tee was the Secretary- SGIM CA-HI Region.

Stanford and VA Palo Alto interdisciplinary team presented Age-Friendly Escape Room: A Polypharmacy Quandary workshop.

Dr. Cours and Dr. Sheffrin presented "Enhancing Post-Discharge Care for Elderly Adults: The Impact of a Transitional Care Pharmacist."

MS1 Devon Lee and Drs. Dave Chang, Lindsey Haddock's poster won 3rd place in the Innovations Category: "Bringing Tangible Homelessness Interventions into Medical Curricula Through Service-Learning".

Sara Wright PA had a short story that was featured in the Arts & Humanities exhibit.  

Stanford Geriatrics Fellows Alumni event, held on January 19th, 2024

On January 19, 2024, the first annual Geriatrics Fellowship Alumni Networking event brought together graduates from the past twenty years, current fellows, and fellowship faculty for an evening filled with engaging conversation, delicious food, and rekindled connections. This gathering, which took place at the Stanford Barn, not only fostered reunions but also offered current fellows a valuable networking platform for their impending job searches. The event is set to become an annual tradition, with alumni continuing to build their community through ongoing meetups.

AGS Teachers' Section June Spotlight- Matthew Mesias, MD

Name: Matthew Mesias, MD 

Position/Institution: Clinical Assistant Professor, Stanford University

Years in role: 5+

Best part of job: The people. I am really lucky to work with a fantastic group of geriatricians, mentors, trainees, and multidisciplinary team members. My clinic is next to a Shake Shack, so that is plus as well. 

Currently working on: I am in year 1 of my Geriatric Academic Career Award (GACA) where I am working to better understand the geriatric educational needs of our community partnered FQHCs and how we can best provide geriatrics education and access to providers and patients in those care settings.

What I would like to collaborate on: Community based geriatrics education, infiltrating geriatrics curriculum into medical student education, integrating patients and caregiver experiences and storytelling into the classroom. 

One thing I have learned from my patients: As a new faculty, I was humbled when a patient shared the financial toxicities they experienced due to my care. From copays, to apixaban, to parking, it was striking how quickly out of pocket costs can rack up for many of those on a fixed income.

One thing I have learned from my learners: There are often multiple ways to approach a clinical scenario in geriatrics, and the attending's way may not necessarily be the only way.

One thing you want you learners to know: It is OK to not address all the problem list and all of the geriatric syndromes in one visit… just make sure they come back!

Advice for junior faculty: Seek out multiple mentors! I have been fortunate to have fabulous mentors in and outside of geriatrics that have been crucial to my professional development.

Favorite geriatric pearl of wisdom: Start low and go slow is a classic.

Favorite geriatric syndrome: I'm the medical director for our inpatient consult team, so naturally delirium is my jam.

What's saving your life right now? Coaching my two kiddos in little league baseball (a very different type of educator role with very different learners)

Where can we find you online? mmesias@stanford.edu and @mpmesias on the website formerly known as twitter.

Embracing Healthy Aging

Can Chen, MD, will explore the four most important aspects of caring for the elderly using the innovative 4M (movement, medication, and what matters most) framework in geriatric medicine. Whether you are an elderly individual, a caregiver, or a healthcare provider, this lecture will provide valuable information to help you or your loved one embrace healthy aging with confidence. 

Can Chen, MD, serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Geriatric Medicine section at Stanford.

This talk will be in Mandarin.

Wednesday April 10

7:00pm PST

Online

Annual Geriatric Summer Event

Capturing the energy of our Annual Geriatric Summer Event on August 16th, 2024—faculty, staff, and students coming together for a evening of fun, connection, and community spirit.

VA Palo Alto Medical Center was one of 381 hospitals across the United States that was rated with 5 stars from CMS

GRECC Research Retreat

VA Palo Alto Healthcare System’s first GRECC Research Retreat, held on February 23, 2024. Each of the GRECC researchers presented an overview of their work that proved to be comprehensive in nature, ranging from basic science on sirtuins to the epidemiology of deprescribing to the important role of periodontitis in rheumatoid arthritis flairs in older adults. The retreat was well attended by all GRECC affiliated principal investigators, geriatric fellows, post-doctoral research fellows, and guests. Following the retreat presentations, the VA principal investigators convened a meeting to discuss future GRECC goals and opportunities for new research collaboration.

Geriatric Faculty recognized for their excellence in teaching

Geriatric Faculty recognized for their
excellence in teaching


Vinita Shastri, MD – one of two faculty from
PCPH who received then2023 Department
of Medicine PCPH Division Teaching Award


Lindsey Haddock, MD – awarded the first
Geriatrics Fellow Teaching Award

Humanism in Medicine

Stanford Geriatric Fellowship Director, Dr. Vinita Shastri, gave a lecture entitled, “Humanism in Medicine” as part of the VA Health System’s Geriatric Scholars Webinar Series on February 21, 2024.  It was very well attended, with 318 participants from across the nation. Her talk resonated with many, causing them to reflect on their own level of humanism in clinical practice, how it has changed over time, factors affecting it, and personal opportunities to enhance humanism across different domains.

 

2023 Section News

Matt Mesias’ GACA award

Congratulations to Matt Mesias, MD, on being awarded the Geriatric Academic Career Award (GACA). This award will provide him the protected time to develop a geriatric e-consult service as a method to improve geriatrics education and interprofessional geriatrics training for our clinical partners who care for underserved older adults in our community, specifically engaging the Stanford O’Connor Family Medicine Residency Program and the Ravenswood Family Health network.

Meera Sheffrin’s SHC Medical Staff Innovations in Care award

This is a Stanford Health Care wide award that demonstrates a visionary approach to problem-solving and performance improvement. This individual is highly engaged in improvement projects and actively advocates for positive change.

Congratulations!!

Congratulations to Dr. Can Chen on receiving the PCPH Fall Award for Outstanding Geriatric Award!

Deborah Kado spoke on Aging and Longevity at the popular Annual Stanford Health Matters 2023 event highlighted below

Thanks to 21st century science, people are living longer. And although it's true that, with age, the risk of chronic disease increases, Deborah Kado, MD, professor of medicine, says people age differently -- there's natural variability in individual health and ability as people get older. Living a longer, healthier life has little to do with supplements or fad longevity treatments.

"I've seen a lot of life-extending supplements come to market in my time, many of which were developed by reputable scientists who take the supplements themselves. None of those scientists are known for extreme longevity," Kado said.

Staying healthy and able in old age has more to do with behavior, Kado said. For instance, patients should practice mobility (safely moving their bodies every day) and mental activity  (prioritizing mindfulness and sleep) that's tailored to individual conditions or recovery protocols. Clinicians should also take care to prescribe only medications that are strictly necessary, Kado said, as increased medication use can be detrimental to the microbiome, the beneficial bacteria that live in the gut and aid digestion. And a healthy gut flora supports healthy aging.

Link to the talk:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lWau-ORLZM

Stanford Geriatrics ranked in the top 10 by U.S. News & World Report

Stanford Health Care’s Geriatrics Section for the first time in history has been ranked in the top 10 of all geriatrics programs across the United States. Since the inception of the Geriatrics Section in Primary Care and Population Health under the leadership of Drs. Sang-kick Chang and Marina Martin in 2015, Stanford Geriatrics has continued to rise in the rankings. In 2021, we were #16, in 2022 we increased to #15, and we are proud to announce that we are #10 in 2023. To achieve such recognition is a reflection of all the hard work and dedication our multidisciplinary teams have put in to improve the health care and outcomes of our older patient population.

Caroline Park, VA Palo Alto GRECC’s advanced geriatrics research fellow

Recognized for her first authored work published in JAMA Trauma Surgery:
 

“Association Between Implementation of a Geriatric Trauma Clinical Pathway and Changes in Rates of Delirium in Older Adults with Traumatic Injury” was the top scoring submission for this year’s Excellence in Improvement Publication Award by a first-author trainee. This award is presented by Stanford Medicine Center for Improvement (SMCI) Evaluation, Research, Publications and Grant (ERPG) Work Group.

SMCI website intro: https://smci.stanford.edu/lecture-series-june-13th-2023/

Direct youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqQTQLeCngk&t=5s