Recently, UNC Geriatric Medicine personnel attended the Gerontological Society of America’s Annual Scientific Meeting, GSA22. Held from November 2-6 in Indianapolis, IN, GSA22’s theme was Embracing our Diversity, Enriching our Discovery, Reimagining Aging.
Division Chief Dr. Jan Busby-Whitehead was joined at the conference by Dr. John Batsis (Associate Professor, Division of Geriatric Medicine; Associate Professor, Gillings School of Global Public Health), Dr. David Lynch (Medical Director, Inpatient Geriatrics Service), Tiffany Driesse (Center for Aging and Health Research Assistant), Jennifer Hubbard (CGWEP Social/Clinical Research Assistant), and Caroline Buse (UNC School of Medicine student). Below are highlights of this year’s GSA meeting.
GWEP Preconference
Before the conference proper, CGWEP Social/Clinical Research Assistant Jennifer Hubbard attended GSA22’s GWEP-CC Pre-Conference Meeting. “The preconference had an excellent line-up of speakers on different topics,” said Hubbard. Some of these topics included the 4Ms consumer tools developed by Community Catalyst, Age-Friendly sustainability amongst urban and rural GWEPs, delivering 4Ms care in a community-based setting, and advocacy updates from the National Association for Geriatric Education (NAGE). According to Hubbard, “Additionally, a common theme for improving the GWEP grant was integrating the 4Ms and MIPS.”
James McKenney Travel Award
Prior to GSA22, GSA and the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) announced Caroline Buse as a recipient of the James McKenney Travel Award. Buse officially received the award during the meeting’s AGHE Awards Presentation.
In addition to receiving the award at GSA22, Buse also presented her MSTAR research – Elective Medicine: Are Older Women with Early Breast Cancer Receiving Post-primary Treatment Interested? Collaborators on this research were Erin O’Hare along with Buse’s mentors Hyman Muss, MD and Kristen Nyrop, PhD. Buse is a third-year medical student and a 2021 UNC MSTAR alum.
Dr. John Batsis
Poster Presentation
Dr. John Batsis presented a poster entitled, Protein Supplementation Negatively Impacts Glucose Homeostasis in a Weight Loss Intervention in Older Adults. Dr. Batsis was the first author while Geriatric Medicine colleagues Drs. David Lynch and Hillary Spangler were co-authors.
Interdisciplinary Panel Discussion
Dr. Batsis also served as a panelist in an Interdisciplinary Public Policy Discussion Session. Run by the GSA Policy Committee on Geroscience, the session provided perspectives from representatives of all the major GSA sections. Specifically, Dr. Batsis represented Health Sciences and discussed policy implications of Geroscience treatments, trials, and science in relation to public health.
Dr. David Lynch Presentation
Dr. David Lynch gave a talk entitled Mid-Arm Muscle Circumference and Cognitive Decline. Dr. Lynch was first author while Dr. Batsis was co-author on this research. About the conference, he said, “I love the conference. Our group had a lot of opportunities to network and build collaborations with other aging researchers from across the country.”
Tiffany Driesse Presentation
At GSA22, Research Assistant Tiffany Driesse gave a presentation entitled Usability Study of Technology-based Dietary Assessment among Older Adults, specifically Benefits and Barriers to Emerging Voice-based Technologies to promote dietary recall among Older Adults.
About the conference she said, “Overall all I thought GSA was great. It is a very research-focused conference allowing the CAH booth to discover lots of recruitment opportunities along with networking.” Driesse is first author on this research while Drs. Hillary Spangler, David Lynch, and John Batsis are co-authors.
Learn More about UNC Geriatric Medicine