March 2013
Dr. Christine Ritchie, Jewish-Home based Harris Fishbon Distinguished Professor in Clinical Translational Research in Aging, makes her way to New Orleans, where she will receive the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine’s Palliative Medicine National Leadership Award on March 13. This award recognizes a physician leader who has advanced the field of palliative care by the education of the next generation of palliative care leaders.
For more than 25 years, the American Academy has dedicated itself to advancing hospice and palliative medicine and improving the care of patients with life-threatening or serious conditions. It began with 250 charter members and has grown to nearly 5,000 to date. The award program promotes the visibility and prestige of physicians in both academic and clinical settings who are committed to mentoring future leaders and serving as role models for other health professionals engaged in improving the care of the dying.
Senior development & gift planning officer Daniel Hoebeke returns by popular demand to present the two-hour Primer Program at the Northern California Planned Giving Council’s event on March 14. Addressing attendees on Charitable Estate Planning: Is the Party Over?, Daniel noted: “There’s no reason to panic about the future of charitable giving and the survival of our charities, especially if we focus on what donors really want. (It isn’t tax advice.)” Event attendees received two hours of continuing professional education credits.
February 2013
Dr. Christine Ritchie, Jewish-Home based Harris Fishbon Distinguished Professor in Clinical Translational Research in Aging, added another engagement to her robust schedule when, toward the end of December, she spoke on What is Complexity? How Do We Provide Good Care? at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Leffert Memorial Lecture. The Robert Leffert, MD, Palliative Care Memorial Lecture series was established in 2011 in honor of Dr. Leffert, who was MGH Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and the MGH Surgical Upper Extremity Rehabilitation Unit, and to support the work that helped him and his family through his final days.
Dr. Janice Schwartz, director of the Home’s Center for Research on Aging, will be participating in the National Institutes of Health’s Center for Scientific Research review of proposals submitted for funding in the area of aging research, February 4 – 6, in Los Angeles.
The American College of Cardiology (ACC), a 40,000-member nonprofit medical society, is dedicated to enhancing the lives of cardiovascular patients through continuous quality improvement, patient-centered care, payment innovation, and professionalism. Comprised of physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, and practice managers, the College is a leader in the formulation of health policy, standards and guidelines, and a steadfast supporter of cardiovascular research.
Dr. Schwartz will be joining her fellow specialists at ACC’s annual scientific meeting, taking place at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, March 9 – 11, and more specifically, on Monday, March 11, when she presents Prevention: Do the Very Elderly Require a Different Approach? in a symposium entitled “Prevention in the Very Elderly: What Is a Valid Goal?”
Notes Dr. Schwartz: The majority of older people have inadequate vitamin D status in the absence of supplementation. This deficit is most marked and severe in the “oldest old” and those in nursing homes – the same groups with the highest incidence of osteoporosis, muscle weakness, falls and fractures, immune system dysfunction, metabolic abnormalities, and cardiovascular disease that have been associated with vitamin D deficiency. Yet there are extremely limited data on 25-OH vitamin D responses to vitamin D supplementation in this at-risk and vulnerable population.
Research’s current study will answer the question: How much vitamin D should we give to nursing home residents? Under determination will be vitamin levels and bone responses to supplemental vitamin D3 administration, ranging from 800 IUs (the daily recommended dose); to 2,000 (a commonly administered dose); to 4,000 (the maximal recommended daily dose); and to 50,000 IUs a week (the dose used in vitamin D deficient people) in several hundred nursing home residents.
This National Institutes of Health/ National Institute on Aging-supported trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, where further details about this study may be accessed.
Sharon Fried, leadership gifts officer, represented the Jewish Home at Sinai Memorial Chapel’s 100th annual meeting on January 20. Says Sharon: “The Home enjoys a close, collaborative relationship with Sinai and shares several commonalities, which I highlighted at the meeting:
Like Sinai, the Home sees families and individuals in times of crisis and vulnerability.
We both provide the highest levels of care, informed and guided by Jewish tradition.
Both our organizations deal with individuals in the final stages of the life cycle, and ease them through an often painful and difficult, but inevitable, life transition with great skill and compassion.
Many of the individuals and families we both see are economically challenged. Thanks to our generous and caring community and leadership, we break down the barriers between delivering service and proven limited financial capacity.
“For many years, the Jewish Home has been the recipient of a grant from Sinai’s Maot Chitim Fund, to partially defray the rising costs of providing kosher-for-Passover food, residents’ seders [Passover meal] and programming. The celebratory seder meal, annual Jewish music performance and the mitzvah of the seder plate, which each resident receives, underscored for the meeting’s attendees that, regardless of each resident’s cognitive or physical abilities, the staff of the Jewish Home strives to maintain our residents’ connections to each other, to the power of Jewish music, and to Jewish history and traditions. Sinai’s leadership and the audience were so impressed with the amazing work of our talented and dedicated staff.”
