Prime Time Television, Disease, and Death
I recently experienced the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance during a commercial on the evening world news. It was an advertisement promoting a diabetes medicine that showed people with diabetes at a barbecue, cooking and dancing. How different this was from my day...
Upcoming Talks at SAWC
I am thrilled to announce that I will be presenting in two sessions at the upcoming Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC) which is going on from April 25 to 29, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. SAWC is a leading educational forum for interdisciplinary wound care...
Webinar on Unavoidable Pressure Injuries, Terminal Ulceration, and Skin Failure
Please join me Thursday, November 16 from 3:00-4:00pm EDT for a free webinar presented by myself and Elizabeth A. Ayello, PhD, RN, sponsored by the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP), entitled Unavoidable Pressure Injuries, Terminal Ulceration, and Skin...
NPUAP Biennial to Host Panel on End-of-Life Ulcers & Skin Failure
I am pleased to announce that the 2017 National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) Biennial Conference entitled Pressure Injury: Advancing the Vision is hosting a panel of experts to discuss the terminology and evidence related to the important issue of end-of-life...
Skin Failure: An Emerging Concept
This post is based on my article that recently appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. Skin failure is an emerging concept that ties together current trends in clinical practice and deserves wider acceptance. Wound care providers have...
Speaking of Art and Aging at MOMA
It was my pleasure and honor to speak today at the Museum of Modern Art in a lecture entitled “Picturing Aging: The View From a Geriatrician.” The talk presented my portfolio of images of aging, and discussed the relationship between art and growing old. It was...
New Pressure Ulcer Chapter in the Geriatrics Review Syllabus
The Geriatrics Review Syllabus, 9th Edition, also known as GRS9, has been released and I am thrilled to be author of the newly revised and expanded chapter on Pressure Ulcers. The GRS9 is a comprehensive reference on geriatric medicine, a study guide for those...
Pressure Ulcers are an Under-Appreciated Public Health Issue
As a geriatric fellow back in the 1980's I became intrigued by the wide prevalence of pressure ulcers and how little literature there was on this disease. Three decades later, they have not gone away and it amazes me that they are not on the list of recognized public...
Recognizing the Incurable in Ancient Egypt
The art of medicine is as old as human civilization, and what we think is new has often been done before. When researching the history of wound care I came across an interesting historical antecedent to today’s palliative care practices. I found it in the library of...
New Evidence for Pressure Ulcer Unavoidability
Over 150 years ago Jean Martin Charcot recognized that pressure ulceration can be an unavoidable component the dying process, kicking off a controversy over preventability that continues today. Contemporary medical science presents a growing body of knowledge...
Infections Related to Pressure Ulcers are Always Serious
Infections related to pressure ulcers are always serious events because most patients with these wounds are already compromised, and open wounds provide a portal for pathogenic bacteria to enter the body. Reasons for compromise include immobility, neurologic...
The Geriatric Workforce and Quality of Care
What could be less intuitive than a shrinking medical specialty in the face of surging demand? A recent New York Times article discussed the growing shortage of geriatricians in America. Despite the fact that there are more older Americans than any time in history,...