As part of the Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program, funded by a Health Resources and Services Administration grant awarded to Dr. Beatriz Korc-Grodzicki in 2015, the Geriatric Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering established the Geriatric Resource Interprofessional Program (GRIP).

Our GRIP team includes MSK specialists in occupational and physical therapy, pharmacy, nutrition, medicine, nursing, social work, psychiatry, and immigrant health, along with GRIP’s outside partners. These community-based organizations serve older adults in culturally diverse and medically underserved areas, providing outreach at senior centers, places of worship, and libraries. They are experts on the communities they serve. The GRIP team’s mission is to provide evidence-based and culturally responsive geriatric education to doctors, healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers, within both communities and academic institutions, where a significant percentage of older adults receive healthcare. The program focuses on geriatric education across the cancer journey.

Courses

Upcoming CME courses on geriatric medicine and geriatric oncology:

• Interprofessional Two-Day Symposium offered: 
  September 10-11, 2020
  Title: Geriatric Oncology: Cognition and Communication
  Learn more

Online Modules

These high-quality online modules were developed by the GRIP team, for physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, and other health professionals who care for older adults with cancer:

• Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment of Older Patients with Cancer
  A comprehensive geriatric assessment is a standard part of a geriatrician’s baseline evaluation of an older patient.
• Frailty
  The Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) is a multidimensional, interdisciplinary diagnostic process to determine the medical, psychological and functional capabilities of an older person to develop a coordinated and integrated plan for treatment and long-term follow up based on an individual’s level of frailty. This course prepares the clinician in its domains and its practical use in clinic.
• Identifying Depression in Older Adults with Cancer
  This course is intended to teach a range of practitioners across settings to recognize and appropriately manage depression among their older adult patients.
• Nutrition in Older Patients with Cancer
  Key care components can address older adults’ nutrition before, during, and after cancer.
• Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults with Cancer
  Social isolation and loneliness have lasting and detrimental effects for older adults.

Resources

To learn more about caring for older adults with cancer, consult these resources:

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Geriatric Plan
  Davis ME, Mcevoy L. THE GERIATRIC PLAN: AN ELECTRONIC RESOURCE FOR ONCOLOGY NURSES. Oncology Nursing Forum. 2017;44(2).
• Handbook of Geriatric Oncology
  Korc-Grodzicki, BK., Tew, W., (2017) Handbook of Geriatric Oncology: Practical Guide to Caring for Older Cancer Patients. Demos Medical Publishing.
• Caring for the Older Adult with Cancer in the Ambulatory Setting
  McEvoy, L., Cope, D. Caring for the Older Adult with Cancer in the Ambulatory Setting. The Oncology Nursing Society, 2012. Web.