Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
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This article describes the curricular milestones for geriatric fellows and the process used to develop them. The curricular milestones were developed to determine what every graduating geriatric fellow should be able to demonstrate to ensure that they will be able to practice effectively and safely in all care settings and with different older adult populations. Three major domains were identified: Caring for the Elderly Patient, Systems-Based Care for Elder Patients, and Geriatric Syndromes. ⋯ These geriatricians represented important stakeholder groups: geriatric fellowship program directors; Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs (ADGAP) members, who are primarily geriatric program and fellowship directors; the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and ADGAP Education Committee; the AGS Teacher's Section; Geriatric Academic Career Award awardees; and through the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Family Medicine, board-certified geriatricians who spend more than 50% of their time in clinical practice. The AGS and ADGAP boards approved the final set of 76 Geriatric Curricular Milestones, which were posted on the Portal of Geriatric Online Education in December 2012. These curricular milestones are intended to assist geriatric fellowship directors as they develop curricula and assessments to inform program director reporting to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in the Next Accreditation System, which begins in July 2014.
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Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) describe the core work that constitutes a discipline's specific expertise and provide the framework for faculty to perform meaningful assessment of geriatric fellows. This article describes the collaborative process of developing the end-of-training American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs (ADGAP) EPAs for Geriatric Medicine (AGS/ADGAP EPAs). The geriatrics EPAs describes a geriatrician's fundamental expertise and how geriatricians differ from general internists and family practitioners who care for older adults.
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Since 2012, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) has also been collaborating with the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation, joining its "Choosing Wisely" campaign on two separate lists of Five Things Healthcare Providers and Patients Should Question. The campaign is designed to engage healthcare organizations and professionals, individuals, and family caregivers in discussions about the safety and appropriateness of medical tests, medications, and procedures. ⋯ Providers then share this information in a published article about these things on the ABIM campaign's website (www.choosingwisely.org). The first AGS list was published in February 2013.
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Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most common chronic conditions in older adults and is often accompanied by comorbidities and geriatric syndromes. The management of cardiovascular disease risk factors in older adults with DM is important to clinicians. The literature was reviewed from 2002 to 2012 to provide an American Geriatrics Society expert panel with an evidence base for updating and making new recommendations for improving the care of older adults with type 2 DM. ⋯ Neither trial found significantly fewer primary cardiovascular endpoints with aspirin than in control groups. Overall, RCTs enrolled few adults aged 80 and older or with significant comorbidities. More research is needed for clinicians to effectively customize care to older adults with DM because of heterogeneity in health status, comorbidities, duration of disease, frailty and functional status, and differences in life expectancy.