GeriPal

by: Cynthia X. Pan, MD, FACP, AGSF (@Cxpan5X)

My colleagues often ask me: “Why are Chinese patients so resistant to hospice and palliative care?” “Why are they so unrealistic?” “Don’t they understand that death is part of life?” “Is it true that with Chinese patients you cannot discuss advance directives?”

As a Chinese speaking geriatrician and palliative care physician practicing in Flushing, NY, I have cared for countless Chinese patients with serious illnesses or at end of life.  Invariably, when Chinese patients or families see me, they ask me if I speak Chinese. When I reply “I do” in Mandarin, the relief and instant trust I see on their faces make my day meaningful and worthwhile.

At my hospital, the patient population is about 30% Asian, with the majority of these being Chinese. Most of these patients require language interpretation.  It becomes an interesting challenge and opportunity, as we often need to discuss advance directives, goals of care, and end of life care options…

We had a tremendous amount of fun at the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) annual meeting this year presenting the Geriatrics Literature Update.  After each article that Ken Covinsky and Eric Widera eruditely summarized and explained, we had an audience sing-along to a parody of well-known songs.

This year, Ken insisted on more wholesome songs, the sort of songs Julie Andrews would sing in a musical.  We mostly stuck to that...but how can you not sing Grunge when you're in the Pacific Northwest?!?

So if you missed AGS this year or want to relieve this experience, check out the video our fantastic audio-visual guru Tim Stuck put together.  Just click play below, or if no image is showing, click this link to go straight to the YouTube video.  Note that each article discussed appears at the start, with a QR code that will take you straight to the article if you point your phone's camera at it in picture taking mode (don't even need to take a picture).

See below the video for…

In this week's GeriPal podcast we discuss delirium, with a focus on prevention. We are joined by internationally acclaimed delirium researcher Sharon Inouye, MD, MPH. Dr Inouye is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Aging Brain Center in the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife.

Dr. Inouye's research focuses on delirium and functional decline in hospitalized older patients, resulting in more than 200 peer-reviewed original articles to date. She has developed and validated a widely used tool to identify delirium called the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM), and she founded the Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) to prevent delirium in hospitalized patients.

We are also joined by guest host Lindsey Haddock, MD, a geriatrics fellow at UCSF who asks a great question about how to implement a HELP program, or aspects of the program, in a hospital with limited resources.  


You can also find us on Youtube!


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