GeriPal

This week's GeriPal Podcast features NY Times journalist Paula Span about what we can do as educators, researchers, and as clinicians to collaborate with journalists and the media in general.  Some general timps that we discuss include:
It’s ok to pitch a story to journalists (even medical education ones) Tell them why this topic/story is important (or not)Be available to reporters - they are often on a tight deadlineSpeak in clear language.  That includes avoiding medical jargon like “comorbidities”Journalists use twitter, so should youDon’t forget, media comes in all shapes and sizes. During Paula's extensive career as a reporter, she has written for the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, New York Magazine, Esquire, Parenting, Glamour, Ms and several city magazines. Paula currently writes at The New York Times for The New Old Age, and trains the next generation of journalists at the Columbia University Graduate School …

What should you say to your older patient when it's time to stop cancer screening?

This week's GeriPal Podcast features Nancy Shoenborn, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins.  Dr. Shoenborn published a paper in JAMA Internal Medicine this week on older adults perspectives on cancer screening cessation, and using life expectancy to justify stopping screening.

The graphic above gives some nice quotes of older adults in reaction to the Choosing Wisely Statement, "Don't Recommend Cancer Screening if Patient is Not Likely to Live 10 Years."  38/40 pariticipants in this study objected to this statement!

The majority of our discussion was focused on this puzzling set of facts:
Older adults in this study were OK with clinicians advising them to stop cancer screeningBut most did NOT want clinicians to use Life Expectancy as a justification for stopping
Makes you think, huh?  The major reason for stopping screening is because it's unlikely to benefit more t…

Today's GeriPal Podcast features Vanessa Grubbs, a nephrologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF.  She has blogged before for GeriPal (here and here).

Vanessa talks with us about her forthcoming book titled, "Hundreds of Interlaced Fingers," to be released June 13, but available for pre-order now.

Dr. Grubbs' book tells the story of her journey from primary care to nephrology to palliative care, of falling in love with a man to donating a kidney to him to marriage, and of the journeys of the diverse, older, complex patients she's cared for with chronic kidney disease, who sometimes choose not to start dialysis.

She is one of the few, "palliative care" oriented nephrologists in the US.  We need more!

The transcript is below, though you'll miss Vanessa singing Prince if you only read!



Links:
Hundreds of Interlaced FingersVanessa Grubbs' blog
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For this week's GeriPal podcast we talk with Sandra Moody, MD, about her experiences in geriatrics and palliative care in Kamogawa City, Japan.  Sandra helped to start the hospice and palliative care service at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center prior to moving to Japan.  We spoke with Sandra about differences between geriatrics and palliative care as practiced in the US vs. Japan.

Key excerpts from the transcript below:
Japan Geriatric Society, and other similar Gerontology and Geriatric organizations were established [in Japan] even before the U.S. I thought they had a lot of clinical services, but they don't. They had 20 to 30, they may have more now, departments of Geriatrics and Gerontology, but they were really research programs, and not clinical programs. Palliative Care has been around since probably 1981 ... first Palliative Care Unit, they say. Palliative Care is for those with cancer diagnosis only.Palliative Care in Japan equals Hospice care. The doct…