Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Aging




I'm currently attending the annual retreat of the Brookdale Foundation's Leaders in Aging Fellows program. The program supports research by new researchers in the area of gerontology. Some are physicians, some are basic scientists, some are social scientists...and they throw in a humanities or two as well. It is really interesting to hear the diversity of the research presented. There are four new fellows this year. One is doing work on delivering palliative care in the emergency department of hospitals. Another is interested in mouth care in nursing homes (how do brush the teeth of demented elderly). There is one who is interested in medical costs at the end of life and another who is looking at how the immune system changes with menopause. And those are just the new fellows. Topics of conversation revolve around dealing with aging parents, aging selves, and aging patients. It is always an interesting group.

No comments: