Report from Oct 13th
Contributor: Kseniia Eruslanova
Origin/Afiliation: Kseniia Eruslanova, MD, MSc. Russian clinical and research geriatric center
In October 2021, the European Society for Geriatric Medicine congress was held in the capital of Greece, Athens. The Congress was performed in a combined format: live + online. Given the ongoing epidemic of the new coronavirus infection, at the entrance, congress participants had to show a QR code about vaccination to be admitted to the halls. Another method of combating the spread of infection was the absence of breaks between lectures. The consequence of this decision was the reduction of communication and regular lateness of both listeners and members of the presidium if they wanted to change their location. The Congress lasted for three days.
a large lecture was devoted to the prevention of fractures in elderly patients. Tahir Masud, President of the British Geriatric Society, spoke about how the protocol of fracture prevention should be organized in the 21st century. There is a set of measures aimed at preventing falls and strengthening bone tissue. For the prevention of falls, it is necessary to carry out a comprehensive geriatric assessment with the development of an individual plan of measures, including the prevention of falls. These include correction of drug therapy (polypharmacy increases the risk of falls), vision correction, selection of the right shoes, regular exercise, passive exercises (vibration platform). At the same time, this is the appointment, if necessary, of antiresorptive therapy. In short, an integrated approach is our everything.
One symposium was devoted to geriatric oncology (the term officially exists, as does the International Society of Geriatric Oncology: International Society of Geriatric Oncology). In general, there is a big problem in the world: there are many elderly patients with oncological diseases, but they are rarely included in studies such as RCTs. Of those studies carried out in the last year, CGS's conduct helps form a plan for the management of an elderly patient with oncology. CGS was created for the better management of older adults with oncology disease. Assessment of the chances of survival and development of complications in the direction of these patients (10). This is a form of new thinking in the management of elderly patients; a new system has been developed: the GERONTE project, where the primary goal is to improve the patient's quality of life (11).
In a symposium dedicated to managing patients with CHF, new European recommendations on CHF were presented at the European Congress of Cardiology in 2021, and rare studies on CHF focused on older age groups (80+), for example, BIO-HF Registry, were discussed (12).
At the end of the Congress, summing up the results, the students of EAMA (European Academy for Medicine of Aging) (13) spoke about the days gone by with jokes and funny pictures: the organizers were called the descendants of the Spartans because only they could make a schedule without interruptions (as later it turned out that this was part of the anti-epidemic measures)
And most importantly, everyone is expected in 2022 London.
