January 2010

• Announcements
• New Products
• Product Spotlight
• Letter to the Editor
• Collaborations
• Annual Meetings

Announcements:

New look for the newsletter!
You may or may not have noticed a slight change in the look of this month's newsletter. We have recreated the template in order to retain a consistent format each month. Even though the look has changed slightly, the quality of the content will remain the same.

Would you like to write a product review for publication in JAGS?
JAGS (Journal of the American Geriatrics Society) is publishing reviews of POGOe products in their Educational Resources Review section. See the most recent review by Dr. Anne Glass and Dr. Donna Butler in the January 2010 issue: Glass, A. P. & Butler, D. Q. (2010, January). Health Literacy and Older Adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 58(1), 152-153.

We are looking for faculty to write and submit these reviews. The articles will be peer-reviewed, and can be cited on your CV. For more information, send an email to Editor@POGOe.org.

A Sample of the New Products on POGOe:

• Fourth-Year Medical Student Care Transitions Curriculum #20587 by Manuel Eskildsen
• Preventive Ethics #20604 by Dr. G. Kevin Donovan, Andrea Hyatt and Thomas A. Teasdale
• Age/Gender Differences in Cardiopulmonary Function #20229 by Mary McDonald, MD

Recent Comments on POGOe Products:

"I found the slides related to age-related changes in vision and hearing excellent in my lecture preparation... I like the concept of post-session cases as used, but these were more thorough than the overview that we needed." (Sensory Problems in the Elderly #18986)

"The mini-CEX focuses on important aspects of a tool that is often not used correctly. Easy to use and duplicate in different settings." (MMSE CEX #20544).

Product Spotlight:

3rd Place WINNER: Product of the Year at the 2009 Reynolds Grantees Meeting in Las Vegas, NV
Pills, Pills and More Pills: A Pill Box Exercise to Reduce Polypharmacy
By Diane Brown, Kathryn Denson and Jessica Kuester

“Lions and tigers and bears! Oh, my!” exclaimed a young Dorothy in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz”. A much older Dorothy would have exclaimed “Pills, pills and more pills!” if she had the average number of chronic illnesses that older adults have along with the illnesses' concomitant treatment with pharmaceutical agents. This problem of polypharmacy is the issue addressed in “Pills, Pills and More Pills: A Pill Box Exercise to Reduce Polypharmacy” by an interactive, “hands-on” experience paired with group reflection by Diane Brown, Kathryn Denson and Jessica Kuester from The Medical College of Wisconsin. This POGOe product was voted 3rd Place WINNER as Product of the Year at the 2009 Reynolds Grantees Meeting in Las Vegas, NV.

Targeting learners at various levels – medical students, residents and fellows - the goal of this exercise is to improve the learner’s awareness of the barriers to medication adherence and to increase medication discontinuance/dosing changes. Learners are each given a pillbox and a medication list. They must fill the box with the dosages from a list of “prescriptions” that are given to them as a fictitious patient, “Mr. K”. The prescriptions consist of candies of varying colors and shapes, which are used to represent real medications. Learners must take the “medications” for one week and take note of any problems that they might encounter (e.g. forgetting to take a dose). This is then followed by a faculty-facilitated discussion about barriers and solutions (both physician and patient/family initiated) that could be used to aid adherence.

Click here for full Editors' Choice product review, to view the product, and to comment and rate this product on POGOe. 

Letter to the Editor:

That Extra Faculty Member You Have Wanted
(From UC Irvine faculty)

Our Program in Geriatrics discovered the value of POGOe during the submission process for the Reynolds grant. Reviewing the various curricula available on POGOe influenced our approach when setting up a new Internal Medicine R1 geriatric rotation. We wanted to increase didactic structure within the rotation, and sought a method whereby interns could learn about a topic and then reinforce their learning clinically.

To implement this method, the didactic topics are chosen by the geriatric medical education director and coordinator. The materials to cover these topics are then found through a basic keyword search on POGOe. We choose a variety of taped lectures, powerpoint presentations, and videotaped case presentations, periodically screening for new POGOe submissions.

During a two week intern block, we schedule a self-learning POGOe activity for an hour at the beginning of most days. Residents are provided a computer station with a headset, and asked to log in to POGOe to complete their assignments. Afterwards, they join the geriatric faculty in the clinic. The faculty, who are aware of the day’s didactics, ask residents to focus on the patients who illustrate that day’s learning objectives. In order to ensure that the curricular goals set for the day are met, our faculty follows the educational objectives outlined within the product description on POGOe.

For more information on UC Irvine's program and to view a sample list of assignments, click here.

Collaborations:
D.W. Reynolds FD~AGE Physician Mini-Fellowships in Geriatrics:
The Mini-Fellowships are 3 - 4 day intensive courses for non-geriatricians seeking training in geriatrics education and curriculum development. They target clinician-educators in internal medicine, family medicine, hospital medicine and other subspecialties. The course is free of charge to participants who are not from Reynolds-sponsored schools. CME credit is awarded.

• UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine: February 10-12, 2010
  Visit www.geronet.ucla.edu or contact Anne Hu at: AnneHu@mednet.ucla.edu or (310) 312-0531 for more information
• Duke University School of Medicine: February 22-26, 2010, March 22-26, 2010 & May 24-28, 2010
  Visit careinaging.duke.edu or contact Emily Herbert at: herbe008@mc.duke.edu or (919) 660-7577 for more information
• Mount Sinai School of Medicine: February 28 - March 2, 2010
  Contact GeriEd.Programs@mssm.edu or contact Faye Francisco at (212) 241-3624
• Johns Hopkins University: For information about future mini-fellowships, contact Laura Gibson at (410) 550-3268 or lcgibson@jhmi.edu.

Physician Continuing Medical Education (CME) Courses in Geriatrics:
The list of available CME courses is kept directly on POGOe. To view the list, click here.

Do you have a CME course in Geriatrics that you'd like to have listed on POGOe? Contact us at Editor@POGOe.org.

Annual Meetings of Geriatric Associations & Societies and Other Opportunities:

• Annual Assembly of AAHPM and HPNA: March 3-6, 2010; Boston, Massachusetts
• The AGHE Annual Meeting and Educational Leadership Conference: March 4-7, 2010; Reno, Nevada
• 2010 AAGP Annual Meeting: March 5-8, 2010; Savannah, Georgia
• NCOA-ASA Aging in America Conference 2010: March 15-19, 2010; Chicago, Illinois

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Want to hear about POGOe in between newsletters?
Be the first to hear about an upgrade to the website, the addition of a new feature or a useful tip from the editor by following POGOe on Twitter: www.twitter.com/POGOeHeadlines

POGOe, the Portal of Geriatrics Online Education, is a major initiative of the ADGAP/Reynolds Geriatrics Education Coordinating Center and is funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. To remove yourself from this newsletter, log on to POGOe.org -> "My Account" -> "Edit" tab, scroll down to "Opt-out of Mass E-mails near the bottom of the screen, and choose your preference.

For any questions or for more information about POGOe, please contact us at Editor@POGOe.org.