GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Podcast

Today’s podcast is a follow up to our 2018 podcast with Randy Curtis about the Jumpstart intervention.  On that podcast he and collaborators tested a combined patient and clinician facing communicati…

You may have heard of Area Agencies on Aging, but do you really know what they do or how they do it?  What about State Departments of Aging or state master plans for aging?  Do you know how these age…

I don't know 'bout religion I only know what I see And in the end when I hold their hand It's both of us set free

These are the ending lyrics to Bonnie Raitt’s song “Down the Hall”, an ode to the P…

In the early 1990’s, California Medical Facility (CMF) created one of the nation’s first licensed hospice units inside a prison. This 17-bed unit serves inmates from all over the state who are ap…

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has tremendous potential.  We talk on this podcast about potential uses of AI in geriatrics and palliative care with natural language processing guru Charlotta Lindval…

Diabetes is common.  When I’m on nursing home call, the most common page I receive is for a blood sugar value.  When I’m on palliative care consults and attending in our hospice unit we have to couns…

Our guests today present an important rejoinder to the argument that we should refocus away from advance care planning (ACP).  Sarah Nouri, Hillary Lum, and LJ Van Scoy argue that diverse communities…

Hot off the press is a brand spanking new updated 2023 AGS Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults.  The Beers Criteria is one of the most frequently cited refere…

We’ve had multiple GeriPal episodes about treatments for dementia, including aducanumab (here, here, and here) and lecanemab (here).  As today’s guest, Kristine Yaffe notes, part of the reason for …

I haven’t worked with many adolescents and young adults (AYA, roughly teens to twenties).  But when I have, I find that they’re often some of the hardest patients to care for.  Why?  We talk about wh…

We have a special extra podcast this week.  During the last AAHPM - HPNA meeting in Montréal, we went around asking attendees what one thing that they are most worried about and one thing they are mo…

In 1990 11% of homeless persons were older than 50.  Today half are over age 50.  Today we talk with Margot Kushel about how we got here, including:

• That sense of powerlessness as a clinician when …

Social connections impact our health in profound ways, whether it is the support we receive from family and friends in navigating serious illness, the joy from shared social activities, or connecting…

Do we need an RCT to establish the worth of chaplaincy?

Einstein once said, “Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”

A friend…

Two weeks ago on the GeriPal podcast we talked about why and how to write for the general public.  This week we’ve invited three guests to share their stories about storytelling that’s written for h…

In November of 2022, Ava Kofman published a piece in the New Yorker titled “How Hospice Became a For-Profit Hustle.”  Some viewed this piece as an affront to the amazing work hospice does for those …

So you want to write a book.

So you want to write a book! 

So…you want to write a book?!?

Today we talk with two geriatricians: Rosanne Leipzig, author of Honest Aging: An Insider's Guide to the Seco…

Psychedelics are having a moment.  Enthusiasm is brimming.  Legalization is moving forward in several states, following the lead of Oregon and Colorado.  FDA is considering approval, shifting away fr…

Gabapentin is the 10th most prescribed drug in the United States and use is increasing.  In 2002, 1% of adults were taking gabapentinoids (gabapentin and or pregabalin).  By 2015 that number increase…

You know when you walk out of a patient's room and have that sense, “This isn’t going to go well.” The patient is sick and getting sicker, and refuses to let you talk with family or other members of …