Its time for the field of geriatrics to invest in implementation science

Hospitalisation is one of the most vulnerable times in an older adult’s life, associated with increased risks of functional and cognitive decline and death.1 2 These risks are magnified for those with pre-existing cognitive or functional impairment.3 4 In response, the geriatrics research community has tested new care delivery models to improve hospital care for older adults and reduce these negative outcomes. Models such as Age-Friendly Health Systems,5 Acute Care for the Elderly units6 and the Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP)7 represent comprehensive assessment and intervention programmes with a robust evidence base that can be deployed in the inpatient hospital setting. However, these and other evidence-based geriatrics interventions—particularly when deployed in the inpatient setting—have rarely scaled successfully outside specific research trials. As researchers in this field, we are familiar with the strong evidence base for...
Source: BMJ Quality and Safety - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Editorials Source Type: research