One of my dear friends, Liz, was a remarkable caregiver for her aunt Nancy, who passed away earlier this year, a few months short of her 101st birthday. I first met Nancy six years ago, when she was 95, physically active, vibrant, and independent. At the time, she had just…
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In an earlier post I mentioned my observations of how traumatic a trip to the emergency room can be for older people, and I promised to write about the emergence of geriatric emergency department (ED) models that provide better care for older people and can be a cost savings to…
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Today’s test: Fill in the blank. Please complete this sentence: Because the number of older adults is growing rapidly (some 10,000 turn 65 each day) and, therefore, rates of chronic illness and health care use/spending are increasing rapidly, we must ____________________________________. Reasonable people can disagree about what new ideas or…
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Last week we congratulated and welcomed the 2011 Paul B. Beeson Scholars, recipients of one of our physician faculty career development awards in aging, conducted in partnership with the National Institute on Aging. Today, we highlight another impressive group: recipients of the Dennis W. Jahnigen and T. Franklin Williams Awards…
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For our second installment of vacation-time review posts, we will be exploring the complex and important world of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), a proposed way to reorganize health systems that will theoretically hold down health care costs while improving patient care. Chris Langston has explored this rich topic in…
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Congratulations and welcome to the 2011 recipients of our physician faculty career development awards in aging, made possible through public-private partnerships with the National Institute on Aging. Today, we highlight recipients of the prestigious Paul B. Beeson Career Development Awards in Aging Research, administered by our grantee the American Federation…
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The July/August 2011 issue of Nursing Outlook, the official journal of the American Academy of Nursing expertly edited by Dr. Marion Broome, may be their best ever. (Disclosure: I am a Guest Editor along with Dr. Patricia Archbold and Patricia Franklin). The issue is devoted exclusively to the Hartford…
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It’s August and with various staff out on vacations, we decided to collaborate on some posts that review key topics on Health AGEnda. End of life care is one such recurring theme. Why do we write about it so often? Because with most health care expenditures coming within the last…
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As the newest member of the program staff, I’m delighted to introduce myself and share my excitement about the work we do with our grantees here at the John A. Hartford Foundation. My journey to the field of health and aging and to the Foundation started nearly a decade ago…
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Cancer is cruel, and it seems we all know too many people who face the disease. My dear colleague and friend Amy Berman has been eloquently writing about her own experience, and it feels so unfair. But when I heard my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer several years…
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