The 20th Annual Rocky Mountain Geriatrics Conference & Community Research Symposium is a two-day event featuring presentations from medical experts, top researchers, and academic leaders in the field of geriatric care.
It is hosted in partnership with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center, alternating years with the University of Utah.
“I created the community research symposium because we were finding that the community was very intrigued by what we do here at Anschutz. They didn’t understand our research and how it connects to how we age,” says Jodi Waterhouse, MHA, director of strategic partnerships and programs for the Multidisciplinary Center on Aging at CU Anschutz.
“This is our year to host the conference, so we've combined them,” Waterhouse says. “Thursday is the Rocky Mountain Geriatric Conference, and Friday is community research focused.”
A hub for aging
The Multidisciplinary Center on Aging is housed under the vice chancellor for health affairs and the Division of Geriatrics within the CU Department of Medicine.
“We create a central hub for aging across the CU Anschutz campus. The Center is a catalyst for collaborations, especially for research,” Waterhouse says. “We participate in research within different disciplines and may serve as an expert on research grants.”
The Center supports several initiatives to provide health care throughout the lifespan, including leading CU Anschutz to become the first age-friendly university in the CU system. They do this through their four pillars: research, clinical care, education, and community engagement and outreach.
Providing a platform for less mainstream topics
This year’s conference theme is Current Controversies, Emerging Ethics, and Taboo Topics in Geriatric Care. It was chosen by the conference planning committee, which includes Dan Matlock, MD, MPH, professor of medicine in the division of geriatrics and director of the Colorado Program for Patient-Centered Decisions at the Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS).
“During a conference brainstorming session, Dan shared that he gets asked questions by patients and research participants that he doesn’t always know how to answer. We decided this would be a great platform to discuss some of those trickier topics with other experts,” Waterhouse says.
Some of the “taboo” topics on the agenda for this year include new weight loss medications, Alzheimer's medications, and medical aid and dying.
Waterhouse describes these topics as outside the mainstream because they aren’t typically talked about when addressing the “5 Ms” of geriatrics, which are multi-complexity, mind, mobility, medications, and what matters most.
Health services research on display
ACCORDS investigators are among the more than 30 speakers representing a range of disciplines and topics within geriatric care at the conference. Matlock and two investigators from the Colorado Program for Patient-Centered Decisions will present during the event.
Matlock’s presentation, “Shared Decision Making: Paradise City or Welcome to the Jungle?,” is scheduled for the first morning of the conference.
“I'm going to try to marry the ethic in our moral imperative for patient-centeredness and shared decision making with the reality of caring for older adults with some tips around how we maintain that ethic despite these challenges of cognitive impairment, multi-morbidity, family conflict, multi-complexity, and all the things that make our jobs both interesting and hard,” Matlock says.
Also on day one, Channing Tate, PhD, MPH, assistant professor in general internal medicine, will be part of the Underrepresented Older Adult Communities breakout session with her talk, “Unraveling the Gaps: Exploring Hospice Utilization Among Older Black Adults.”
Day two will feature lighting rounds with leading researchers in aging, including “Firearms and Older Adults: Saving Lives, Relationships and Communities,” a presentation by Christopher Knoepke, PhD, MSW, LCSW, assistant research professor in the division of cardiology.
Other ACCORDS investigators scheduled to present are Jennifer Stevens-Lapsley, PT, PhD, FAPTA, professor of physical therapy. Stevens-Lapsley is part of the Aging Health in Rural Communities breakout, where she will deliver her presentation on “Tele-Rehab Triumphs: Navigating the Challenges and Reaping the Benefits.” Tell Bennett, MD, professor of biomedical informatics, will present with colleagues on the opportunities and challenges of transforming geriatric care with AI.
Health in aging
The conference takes place September 19 and 20, which falls during Healthy Aging Month. September is recognized as a time to promote ways people can maintain health as they age.
“Healthy aging is a complicated construct, because there's physical health, mental health, social health, and spiritual health. As you get older, it's not just about physical health, although getting people moving and walking and exercising is a big piece of it. We should think that health is a holistic term, and as we get older, those other domains beyond physical become more and more important,” Matlock says.
Waterhouse adds that people’s interpretation of how they age is very different.
“The purpose of the conference and symposium is to connect the aging dots for people,” Waterhouse says. “It is a unique an educational platform where you could have a researcher, a clinician, a community member, a service provider, and an elected official who's doing policy in aging, all learning from each other. We can share new innovations and research that could directly impact how we age and for people to better understand their own aging.”
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