Geriatric Medicine News

Among older patients on a direct oral anticoagulant, those who took clarithromycin had a small, statistically significant increased risk for major hemorrhage at 30 days vs. those taking azithromycin, researchers found.

Administering the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MoCA, via telehealth poses challenges, one of the tool’s developers told Healio Primary Care.

Older adults with certain chronic conditions were significantly more likely to have severe tooth loss compared with adults who did not suffer from chronic conditions, according to an analysis published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The FDA recently announced the approval of Tauvid, an IV injection that is used to help image a specific characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain known as tau pathology.

May has been commemorated as Older Americans Month since 1963, according to the Administration for Community Living.

Frequent internet use appeared associated with increased risk for social isolation among older adults, according to study results published in Ageing & Society.

Medication reduction in older patients treated with multiple antihypertensive medications was noninferior to usual care regarding the control of systolic BP at 12 weeks, according to data from the OPTIMISE trial published in JAMA.

Four older adults residing in an independent and assisted living facility in Seattle were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and became infected with the virus but remained asymptomatic in the preceding 14 days. A facility-wide outbreak was avoided because early surveillance strategies and strict self-isolation measures were implemented shortly after the facility’s first case was identified, researchers wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Half of quality measures from CMS’ Merit-based Incentive Payment System, or MIPS, that are relevant to home-based primary care for older adults were considered “unusable” because they lacked the appropriate codes, according to a research report published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

CMS recently announced it would expand Medicare coverage to include a range of services through audio-only telehealth visits, one of many changes the agency made to adapt patient care amid the COVID-19 pandemic.