Surgery Wellness Program Newsletter - Winter 2015
The UCSF Center for Surgery in Older Adults (CSOA) has published its inaugural Winter 2015 Newsletter:
Greetings from the UCSF Surgery Wellness Program. As 2015 draws to a close, we would like to thank our patients, families, and supporters for all they have contributed to this exciting new initiative. We are delighted that our program continues to grow and flourish. With the help of a dedicated care team in the clinic, we are innovating approaches to individualized care for older patients undergoing surgery. Alicia Rivas, Laurie Kramer, and Kaitlyn Attiga are refining tailored approaches to help our patients get fit for surgery. Dr. Vicky Tang assists patients and their families with advanced care planning and helps older patients articulate their treatment goals. Our team recently received the Clinical and Translational Science Institute Catalyst Award to develop a digital platform to support for our patients preparing for surgery, and we look forward to accomplishing even more in the weeks and months to come.
We continue to be dedicated to training the next generation of care providers. As a testament to these efforts, this year we were honored to receive the Academy of Medical Educators Innovations Funding for Education to support our work developing educational programs that emphasize team-based, patient-centered care for older surgical patients. Students from the UCSF Schools of Medicine and Nursing are training together in the Surgery Wellness Program and gain experience in communication, team care, and health coaching. This approach not only helps create professionals with a comprehensive skill set, but we have learned that out patients find their service particularly valuable. This fall marks the departure of our stellar inaugural health coaches – Diana Tang, Philip Cheung, CJ Lucas, Rebecca Hofer, and Shirley Chan. We wish them well as we welcome new coaches Alyssa Tao, Hansen Deng, Jackie Cervantes, Ryan McMahan, Roxanne Espaldon, and Zabecca Brinson.
The UCSF Center for Surgery in Older Adults Research Collaborative includes investigators from a broad range of disciplines – surgery, anesthesia, rehabilitation services, geriatrics, symptom management, nursing, education, and health policy. Our team of researchers, educators, and care providers at UCSF are dedicated to improving surgical care for older adults. We seek to discover and implement patient-centered best practices that will help older patients achieve their health goals and maintain independence and vitality. Our overarching goal is to discover best practices through patient-centered outcomes assessment and interventional trials. In addition, we identify and explore barriers to delivery of optimal care with the aim to improve implementation of patient-centered surgical care for older adults.
On a national level, geriatric surgery is gaining increasing attention. This year marked the launch of the Coalition for Quality in Geriatric Surgery Project, a broad-reaching quality program designed to systematically improve care and outcomes for the older adult surgical patient housed at the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Vicky Tang and I are core members of the Coalition. Key areas identified for improvement nationally are (1) attention to specific vulnerabilities in older adults (physical disability, cognitive impairment, and malnutrition), (2) goals of care discussions before surgery, and (3) measurement of outcomes that matter to patients. Our program is ahead of the curve in these domains. We look forward, with your continued support, to future innovation in clinical care, research and education to improve the care of older adults who undergo surgery at UCSF and beyond.
A gift to the Center for Surgery in Older Adults helps researchers to improve surgical care for older adults. For information about how you can help us improve surgical care for older adults please contact our Director of Development Sarah Krumholz at:
415-502-1899
[email protected]