“Attend” Popular Sessions at the Virtual AGS 2008 Annual Scientific Meeting

The American Geriatrics Society’s 2008 Annual Scientific Meeting featured more than 600 geriatrics experts presenting cutting-edge studies and leading sessions concerning geriatrics research, acute and long-term clinical care, and education. If you weren’t among the nearly 2700 who attended the session this spring—and if you were—you can access many of these presentations, and earn CME credit, by visiting AGS’ Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting.

The virtual meeting can be found at www.americangeriatrics.org and clicking in “AGS 2008 virtual meeting” and includes webcasts of more than 60 of the meeting’s most popular sessions. The webcasts feature synchronized slides and audio, and there are handouts for additional sessions that are not available by webcast. A number of the virtual sessions will be of particular interest to professionals in long-term care. These include:

Release of the IOM Study on the Future Healthcare Workforce for Older Americans Plenary Session
During this panel discussion, AGS President John Murphy, MD, and the chair and several members of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee that authored Retooling for An Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce, review the report's findings and implications. The April 14 report warns that the nation's healthcare workforce—defined as healthcare professionals, direct-care workers, informal caregivers, and others involved in patient care—is too small and unprepared to care for the aging population. It calls for sweeping changes to avert this looming healthcare crisis. Dr. Murphy moderates as IOM committee chair John W. Rowe, MD, provides an overview of the study's findings. IOM committee members David B. Reuben, MD, Marie A. Bernard, MD, and Terry T. Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, examine the three-pronged approach recommended by the report for addressing shortcomings in the nation's healthcare system. Members of the audience offer comments and ask questions.

The 2008 Henderson State-of-the-Art Lecture
Linda P. Fried, MD, Dean of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and this year’s winner of AGS’ Edward Henderson Award, devotes the Henderson lecture to the subject of frailty. Dr. Fried, a leading expert on frailty and disability whose research has focused, among other things, on the causes of frailty and disability and their prevention, shares findings from her and related research during the lecture.

GRECC Workshop - Using Health IT to Improve Medication Management of Geriatric Patients: Lessons Learned from Selected Implementations of Computerized Decision Support
This session offers a range of perspectives on clinical decision support, primarily as it relates to medication management in inpatient and outpatient settings, in nursing homes, and during transitions among these settings.

AGS Washington Update
This symposium offers an up-to-date overview of AGS’ public policy agenda and efforts on behalf of measures such as the Geriatric Assessment and Chronic Care Coordination Act and appropriate Medicare reimbursement. It includes a discussion period during which participants explore key policy issues with Wolf Block Public Strategies, AGS' policy consulting firm. Speakers include AGS Public Policy Committee Chair Steven R. Counsell, MD, and Wolf Block’s Christopher T. Cushing.

Regional Differences in Management of Medicare Long-Term Care Quality Indicators and Implications for Geriatric Practice
This session provides an overview of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Quality Improvement Program now in use in nursing homes.

The Impact of Religion on the Health of Older Adults: Doorway Thoughts
This panel discussion examines the impact of religious beliefs and practices on the health of and healthcare for older adults from diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds. Speakers include the authors of AGS’ recently released Doorway Thoughts, Volume III (available at https://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763759841/) which is devoted to this subject. Coauthored by both religious leaders and healthcare professionals, this third volume in the Doorway Thoughts series investigates how developing an understanding of different religious groups can help clinicians effectively care for their older adult patients. The book focuses on American Indian traditions and theologies, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shamanism, Sikhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Moderated by Vyjeyanthi S. Periyakoil, MBBS, MD, who cowrote the chapter on Hinduism, the panel also includes Chaplain Bruce Feldstein, MD, coauthor of the chapter on Judaism, and Ahmed Nezar Kobeisy, PhD, who coauthored the chapter on Islam. Among other explorations, the text examines how varying religious beliefs influence decisions regarding diet, Do-Not-Resuscitate orders, nutrition and hydration at end of life, advance directives, and palliative care.

Collaboration to Incorporate a Prehospice Palliative Care Program in the Nursing Home: Focus on Community, Family, Caregivers, and Empowerment
This workshop examines barriers to providing prehospice palliative care in nursing homes. The workshop is moderated by Barbara J. Messinger-Rapport, MD, PhD, a nursing home medical director, staff physician in Geriatrics, and assistant professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, and director of the Cleveland Clinic - Summa Health System geriatric fellowship program. The session explores care and communication strategies for supplementing existing care plans and palliative care programs in nursing facilities.

Using the PDA Version of Geriatrics at Your Fingertips in Teaching and Patient Care
Led by Fred A. Kobylarz, MD, MPH, this session is a guide to using the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) version of the 10th edition of Geriatrics at Your Fingertips (GAYF 10 ) and applying it in both patient care and teaching. This new edition of GAYF—AGS's acclaimed, comprehensive, compact guide to the healthcare needs of older adults—has been completely updated. The new GAYF for Pocket PCs and PDAs contains all of the comprehensive information in the print edition, and more. Among other areas, GAYF 10 covers delirium, dementia, depression, falls, hearing and vision impairment, incontinence, malnutrition, osteoporosis, pain, psychotic disorders, and palliative care. It also includes more than 100 tables largely focused on the latest drug information, CMS Guidance on Unnecessary Drugs in the Nursing Home, Medicare Part D, assessment instruments (many of which calculate responses), algorithms for a variety of evaluation and management approaches, and an easy-to-browse Table of Contents and detailed Index.

What Every Geriatrician and Geriatric Health Provider Needs to Know About Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans
This symposium focuses on the effects that Special Needs Plans have had on the delivery of healthcare to select groups, including institutionalized elderly persons.

If you attended the 2008 annual meeting, you can access the entire Virtual Annual Meeting free of charge with the username and password that was emailed to you. (If you cannot find or did not receive your login or password, visit the Virtual Meeting website, select the "Attendee?" link on the login page, then select the “Didn’t receive an email?” link and fill in the required information). If you didn’t attend, you can purchase access to either the entire Virtual Meeting or to individual sessions. Some sessions, including those concerning the IOM study, AGS’ Washington Update, Doorway Thoughts III, and using the PDA for GAYF, are available to the public at no cost. The AGS is offering CME opportunities for many of the sessions. The Virtual Annual Meeting will be accessible via AGS’ website at www.americangeriatrics.org through May 2009.