Geriatric Academy

I am a board-certified geriatric pharmacist and tenured Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice with expertise and specialty in Geriatrics, Neurodegenerative Diseases, and Traumatic Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries.

From my website bio:

I also specialize in helping older adults and their caregivers manage their medication-related concerns, including Alzheimer’s Disease, Vascular Dementia, and other related dementias.

In addition to providing clinical consultation to the team and my patients, I have academic appointments at the pharmacy school and the flagship medical center in my hometown. I also serve as a core clinical faculty member on the Medical Center’s Division of Geriatrics and Aging Clinical Competency Committee.

This Committee is responsible for the recruitment, hiring, training, and ongoing evaluation of Geriatric Medicine Fellows. These professionals are medical doctors who have applied to a nationally competitive one-year clinical training program which immerses them in the specialty of geriatric medicine.

Upon successful completion of the program, these physicians go on to lead other departments and agencies as attending physicians and Medical Directors.

My teaching philosophy is straightforward – I teach my physicians, pharmacists, and students to look very, very closely and carefully at the “whole person,” with all of their medical problems, unique issues, and clinical variables.

Some well-meaning providers and pharmacists get too “tunnel-visioned” and focus on one or two specific medical problems the older adult has and unintentionally miss other problems that could contribute to their patients’ decline.

Patients can get overwhelmed by the thousands of medications approved for treating various diseases.

Oftentimes, medical providers and busy pharmacists lack the time to properly educate their patients about their diseases and medications prescribed and dispensed to treat these diseases.

Accompanying medication leaflets and guides can contain medical jargon and language that overwhelms the patient.

Going online doesn’t help either – search results yield so many options, which can add to the confusion.

There is a real danger with search results directing you to unqualified individuals and web pages who do not have the professional training, expertise, or state-issued license to practice.

These parties give biased, medically inappropriate, and sometimes dangerous “advice” to regular people who want accurate information.

After years of seeing our beloved older adults floundering and being given outdated, inaccurate, or superficial information lacking in detail, I decided to create and launch the Geriatric Academy – dedicated to all older adults and their caregivers.

The articles, eBook, and eCourses I offer on my website are presented in simple-to-understand language, providing all of the information older adults and their caregivers need to stay healthy, independent, and aging in place in their own homes for as long as possible.

My flagship course is a two-in-one online program specifically created to comprehensively cover the many aspects of dementia, its management, polypharmacy, medication safety, and drug therapy considerations and tips.

To my knowledge, no other course exists that covers such vital information to this extent and in detail for older adults and their caregivers. All of the content within the course was created by me and is completely original, based on my clinical experience, and in language specifically tailored to the general public.

From a public service and healthcare self-advocacy standpoint, I truly believe that this course has the potential to change countless lives.

In addition to this course, I offer a mini-course for older adults and their caregivers/loved ones about dealing with Stroke.

I also offer a 2-1 ebook that thoroughly reviews important aspects of the aging process, how it impacts drug therapy and related adverse events, and all the dementias and their management. Important and vital tips gleaned from years of clinical experience are also shared in this book. This book is great by itself or is an incredibly valuable accompaniment to the 2-1 flagship course.

My ultimate goal is to reach as many older adults and their caregivers as possible and reduce preventable medication-associated hospital admissions and death through responsible and ethical education.

Please feel free to explore my content here:

https://geristore.samcart.com/courses/directory

Please see more of me here:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AN3WSQkAAAAJ&hl=en

https://www.sjfc.edu/news-and-events/news-archive/spring-2020/a-career-devoted-to-elder-care/

https://www.sjfc.edu/news-and-events/news-archive/spring-2021/school-of-pharmacy-celebrates-class-of-2021/