Geriatric Medicine

The Department of Geriatric Medicine was established in June 2013 and once also undertook the duties of the VIP ward. In September 2019, the Department of Geriatric Medicine became an independent department. In addition to routine outpatient and inpatient services for older adults, the department is also responsible for undergraduate and postgraduate education and research in geriatric medicine, as well as standardized training for trainees in general practice and internal medicine. The Department of Geriatric Medicine has 17 medical and nursing staff members, including 4 physicians, 1 chief physician, and 3 attending physicians, all of whom have received further training at the National Center for Geriatrics. The nursing team has extensive experience in caring for older adults. Clinically, the department specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of common diseases in older adults, particularly the comprehensive management of multimorbidity in older adults and the clinical application of comprehensive geriatric assessment. Research focuses mainly on osteoporosis in older adults, sarcopenia in older adults, and comprehensive geriatric assessment. The department has led two provincial-level projects, one Dalian municipal project, one joint project between the hospital and the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and two intramural projects, and has participated in one horizontal project of the Ministry of Science and Technology. More than 30 academic papers have been published. The department has participated, as associate editor, in the compilation of two books; contributed to the preparation of the standardized training textbook for resident physicians, Geriatric Medicine (People’s Medical Publishing House, 2021); participated in the school translation of Brocklehurst’s Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology (2020); and contributed to the Expert Consensus on Standardized Blood Glucose Management for Older Adults in Chinese Elderly Care Institutions (2021) and the Expert Consensus on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thyroid Diseases in Older Chinese Adults (2021).

Older adults are a special population and frequently suffer from multiple chronic diseases. In addition to common diseases of older age, such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, osteoporosis, and tumors, they often have a series of clinical manifestations, or geriatric problems, involving various functional declines associated with aging and diseases of old age. These include sensory, physical, cognitive, and social functions—collectively known as geriatric syndromes—such as gait abnormalities, falls, visual/hearing impairment, depression, urinary incontinence, constipation, pain, malnutrition, sarcopenia, sleep disorders, dizziness, syncope, dementia, polypharmacy, substance abuse, abuse/neglect, delirium, pressure ulcers, eating disorders, and frailty.

Since the establishment of the Department of Geriatric Medicine, in caring for and treating this special population, and in view of the characteristics of multimorbidity and polypharmacy among older adults, the department has actively implemented comprehensive geriatric assessment in addition to conventional specialty-based diagnosis and treatment. It evaluates older adults’ functional status and the presence of geriatric syndromes and develops individualized diagnosis and treatment plans for each older person. Through many years of clinical practice in geriatric medicine, the team has continuously summarized its experience and lessons learned, incorporated the principles of palliative care into clinical practice, and gradually accumulated extensive experience in the comprehensive management of chronic diseases in older adults and the rescue of critically ill and severely ill patients.

The mission of geriatric medicine is to provide older adults with comprehensive and appropriate treatment, care, prevention, and health-care services; to maintain or improve patients’ functional status to the greatest extent possible; and to enhance their ability to live independently and their quality of life. The Department of Geriatric Medicine has consistently upheld the medical philosophy of “placing older patients at the center, conducting comprehensive overall assessments, providing multidisciplinary collaborative diagnosis and treatment, developing individualized plans for older patients, and delivering continuous care throughout the entire course of care.”