Pills and problems – polypharmacy and mulitmorbidity

This talk reviews the main aspects of the geriatric giant “Iatrogenesis”. Fundamentally this is polypharmacy in older people but also includes any medical intervention that usually unintentionally, causes further disease, a harmful complication, or adverse effect. It discusses multimorbidity (2 or more concurrent illnesses) in older people and how this interacts with polypharmacy and adverse drug events.

Key learning outcomes are being aware of and recognising these very common problems, knowing they are far more dangerous than one would think, how to reduce the risk of these conditions and how to manage these conditions in complex, very old individuals. The talk provides tools to do this in busy health care provider practices.

Prevention in action – disease screening and prevention

This talk is about screening tests and preventative medicine including vaccines in the context of the geriatric patient and how to individualise to each patient and their goals of care. It will include a practical approach to avoid over testing and burdensome interventions but also encourage those that are bang for your buck.

Programme

18:00 – 18:05 Introduction – Dr Lara Greenstein
18:05 – 18:35 Pills and problems – polypharmacy and multimorbidity – Dr Kathleen Ross
18:40 – 19:10 Prevention in action – disease screening and prevention – Dr India Butler
19:10 – 19:30 Discussion – Dr Ross, Dr Butler & Dr Greenstein