The American Geriatric Society held its 2022 Annual Scientific Meeting in Orlando, FL, May 12-14, 2022. Composed of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and the Center for Aging and Health, UNC Geriatrics was fully represented at this year’s meeting. In attendance at the three-day event were Geriatrics faculty, fellows, residents, Center staff, and MSTAR students*.
AGS Awards
Geriatrics faculty member Dr. John Batsis received a Committee Service award from the AGS Research Committee. Also, Tiffany Driesse, a research assistant from Dr. Batsis’ team, received a Presidential Poster Award from the AGS Scientific Program Committee. Driesse’s poster Older Adults experience and response to Voice Assistant Systems was selected as best in the category of Geriatric Syndromes. Dr. Batsis was the other UNC author on this aging research.
In addition, MSTAR student Abdel Rahem Yusuf won the Presidential Poster Session Award for best abstract in the category of Neurologic & Behavioral Science for his poster Longitudinal Analysis of Cognitive Function in Patients with Multiple Myeloma.
UNC Geriatrics Sessions Presenters
Dr. Batsis moderated a session called Beyond Behavioral Weight Loss Interventions, which featured a presentation by Dr. Joshua Niznik focused on pharmacotherapy interventions for weight loss. In addition, Dr. Batsis and faculty member Dr. Christine Kistler co-presented a session entitled Precision Medicine Through the Lens of an Older Adult. Also, Dr. Kistler served as Moderator for another session, Mentation: A Focus on Mental and Cognitive Health Paper Session.
Dr. Phil Sloane presented two conference sessions, Findings and Recommendations for Financing of Care and Building Health Information Technology and Sepsis in Nursing Home Residents: Recognition and Response. Also, Dr. Niznik, was a featured presenter in a symposium session entitled, Getting Rid of Fall Risk-Increasing Drugs (FRIDS): A Deprescribing Balancing Act.
Poster Presentations
The following members of Geriatrics faculty, residents, Center for Aging and Health staff, Geriatric fellows, and UNC MSTAR* students presented posters at this year’s AGS meeting:
Geriatrics Faculty
- Ben Blomberg – Telemedicine Coverage for Skilled Nursing Facilities by A Geriatric-Emergency Medicine Team: A Pilot Study
- David Lynch – Association Between BMI and Rate of Cognitive Decline: China Health and Nutrition Survey
- Joshua Niznik – Patterns of Chronic Opioid and BZD use in Older Primary Care Patients; Deprescribing Opioids and Benzodiazepines: Perspectives of Older Adults
Geriatrics Residents
- Leslie Appleton – Safe But Not Sound: Balancing Patient Safety and Autonomy
- Dominic Boccaccio – Breaking the Mold: An Atypical Presentation of Exertional Dyspnea
- Moriah Forester – Easy bruising not so easily diagnosed
- Hillary Spangler – Correlations between gastrocnemius cross-sectional area and physical function in older adults
- Anne Leslie Worth – Attitudes Related to Frailty Assessment and Use of Point of Care Ultrasound
Geriatrics Fellows
- Brianna Harder – Can we CefTRI something else?
- Tiffany Long – Failure to Thrive, or Failure to Diagnose? A Case of Progressive Functional Decline
- Sarah Stoneking (Fellow) & Claire Larson (Faculty) – Bullous Pemphigoid after a Fall
- Brianna Harder, Tiffany Long, Max Hockenbury, and Sarah Stoneking (2021-2022 Geriatrics Fellows) along with Geriatrics faculty members David Lynch and Laura Hanson – Identifying frailty: Can we do it?
Center for Aging and Health Staff
- Tiffany Driesse – Older Adults experience and response to Voice Assistant Systems (Presidential Poster Award winner)
- Ross Powell (representing CAH staff member Casey Kelley and senior author Lindsay Wilson, Geriatrics faculty) – A Geriatric Telehealth Curriculum: Improving the “Tele-skills” of Medical Students
UNC MSTAR Students
- Caroline Buse – Elective Telemedicine: Are Older Women Receiving Post-primary Treatment of Early Breast Cancer Interested?
- Shannon Cahalan – TDP-43 Aggregate Generation to investigate ALS pathogenesis (Selected for Presidential Poster Session)
- Kevin Cao – Important Components of Medical and Mental Health Care in Assisted Living
- Josh DeJoya – Older Age is Associated with Less Psychological Distress in ICU Family Caregivers
- Rachel Hamm – Association Between the Soluble Receptor for Advance Glycation End Products (sRAGE) and Cerebral Small Vessel Disease in the Atherosclerosis Risk in comunities (ARIC) Study
- Charles Huang – Cataract Surgery Decreases Risk of Falls in Elderly Patients with Comorbid Age-Related Macular Degeneration
- Jennifer Ling – How Frequently do People with Late-Stage Dementia Experience Hospital and Residential Transitions?
- Maebelle Matthew – The Need for Anti-Ageism Interventions in Family Medicine Residencies Across North Carolina
- Kierdre McFadden – Formative Research for a Future Cooking Education Program for Older Adults
- Meghan Pavelka – An Assessment of Basospasm Risk Following Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage in Older Adults
- Vincent Pham – Geriatric Patients with Periorbital Trauma Have a Higher Probability of Death in Five Year Follow Up
- Daniela Shirazi – Obesity, Multimorbidity and the Relationship with Physical Function: Data from the National Health and Aging Trends Survey
- Abdel Rahem Yusuf – Longitudinal Analysis of Cognitive Function in Patients with Multiple Myeloma (Selected for Presidential Poster Session)
About UNC Geriatrics
UNC Geriatrics consists of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and the Center for Aging and Health. Our faculty, clinicians, researchers, fellows, and staff provide high-quality, compassionate care and work to advance geriatric medical research. UNC Geriatrics also invests in training the next generation of geriatric clinicians.
*The UNC-CH T-35 MSTAR program is supported by the National Institute On Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number T35AG038047.