#AGS13: Views of Geriatrics and Palliative Care from Four Continents

This years' American Geriatrics Society (AGS) meeting in Grapevine, Texas, is fast approaching. The schedule is jam packed with great talks to attend. I'd like to mention one special event not listed on the final program.

The Palliative Care Special Interest Group (SIG) is schedule for Saturday, May 04, 2013 from 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm. To spice things up this year we have decided to go a little off the general SIG format. What we have in mind is combining the Palliative Care SIG with the International SIG for the first hour (7-8pm) in order to fit in the following presentation:

Difficult Conversations at End of Life (EOL): Opportunities & Techniques to Avoid Cross-cultural Landmines: Views from Four Continents

This special SIG session will be led by Maura Brennan and will feature:

Maria del Carmen Castillo Gallego, MD
Reham Shaaban DO
Ariba Khan, MBBS MPH
Michael Lerch, MD. MBA
Shobhana Chaudhari MD

Each of the speakers will will discuss Geriatrics and Palliative Care issues from the viewpoint of the 5 different countries (Spain, Germany, Pakistan, India and Egypt). It will also feature a panel discussion facilitated by Sandra Liliana Oakes MD .

After this we will split back up into our respective SIGs (or you can just enjoy what looks like will be a beautiful evening in Texas)

I hope you can attend, and don't forget to start tweeting with #AGS13

by: Eric Widera (@ewidera)

Comments

Helen Chen, MD said…

Perhaps the group will be able to shed additional light on the BMJ controversy re: informing (or not) patients that they have a terminal illness. Would be interested in learning more about the international perspective.

Helen

May 1, 2013 at 3:47 PM

Marlena Tang said…

Thanks so much! Will follow your tweets from the ER.

May 1, 2013 at 9:24 PM

Practical Advice for the End of Life: A Podcast with BJ Miller

This week we talk with BJ Miller, hospice and palliative care physician, public speaker, and now author with Shoshana Berger of the book "A Beginner's Guide to the End."

As we note on the podcast, BJ is about as close as we get to a celebrity in Hospice and Palliative Care. His TED Talk "What Really Matters at the End of Life" has been viewed more than 9 million times. As we discuss on the Podcast, this has changed BJ's life, and he spends most of his working time engaged in public speaking, being the public "face" of the hospice and palliative care movement.

The book he and Berger wrote is filled to the brim with practical advice. I mean, nuts and bolts practical advice. Things like:
How to clean out not only your emotional house but your physical house (turns out there are services for that!)Posting about your illness on social media (should you post to Facebook)What is the difference between a funeral home and mortuaryCan I afford to die? …

Improving Advance Care Planning for Latinos with Cancer: A Podcast with Fischer and Fink

In this week's GeriPal podcast we talk with Stacy Fischer, MD and Regina Fink, RN, PhD, both from the University of Colorado, about a lay health navigator intervention to improve advance care planning with Latinos with advanced cancer. The issue of lay health navigators raises several issues that we discuss, including:
What is a lay health navigator?What do they do? How are they trained?What do lay health navigators offer that specialized palliative care doesn't? Are they replacing us?What makes the health navigator intervention particularly appropriate for Latinos and rural individuals? For advance care planning? Eric and I had fun singing in French (yes French, not Spanish, listen to the podcast to learn why).
Enjoy! -@AlexSmithMD

You can also find us onYoutube!

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Transcript

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