Tag Archives: Institute of Medicine

IOM: Take action to improve cognitive health in non-AD older adults

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A new report from the Institute of Medicine identifies the three key actions people can take to help maintain optimal cognitive function as they age. Physical activity, reducing and managing cardiovascular disease risk, and regularly reviewing medications and their side effects with their clinicians top the list of recommendations to maintain cognitive health.

Photo: Maury Landsman via Flickr

Photo: Maury Landsman via Flickr

“Changes in mental functions and capabilities are a part of aging and occur with everyone,” committee chair Dan G. Blazer, M.D. Ph.D., the J.P. Gibbons professor of psychiatry emeritus at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., said in a statement. “The extent and nature of these changes vary widely and are gradual, and aging can have both positive and negative effects on cognition. Wisdom and knowledge can increase with age, while memory and attention can decline.”

The study focused on the public health dimensions of cognitive aging as separate from neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. It described decline in cognition is a public health issue that goes beyond memory lapses and one that can have significant impacts on independent living and healthy aging. Continue reading →

Liz Seegert is an independent health journalist and AHCJ’s topic leader on aging. She covers older adults, baby boomers, health policy, and social determinants of health, as well as many other health issues. Her bylines include stories for PBS/NextAvenue.org. the American Journal of Nursing, TIME Health, Medscape, Consumer Reports, and Medical Economics, as well as dozens of other trade and mainstream media. Her articles have been syndicated in Forbes.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Hartford Courant, the Saturday Evening Post and other major outlets.

Controversy arises over residents’ sleep

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Fatigued medical residents need protected sleep periods and increased supervision of work-hour limits to improve patient safety and their training environment, according to a new Institute of Medicine report.

The study, which was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, reviewed the relationship between resident work schedules, their performance and the quality of care they provide. Not surprisingly, the study confirms that scientific evidence shows fatigued residents are more likely to make mistakes.

Recommendations include changes to the existing 80-hour-per-week limit on work hours, such as protected sleep periods. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s rules allow residents to work a maximum 30-hour shift. The IOM recommends a change to require residents who complete a 30-hour shift to only treat patients for up to 16 hours. They must then have a five-hour protected sleep period between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.

However, Public Citizen Health Research Group chastised the IOM approach. “Giving the ACGME, a group with neither the appetite nor the ability to enforce significant work-hour reductions, the primary authority over resident work hours creates an irresolvable conflict of interest,” the group says.

The consumer group also complains that ACGME enforcement of existing guidelines has been lax and enforcing a guideline on sleep within shifts will be even more difficult by maintaining that sleep will not be “protected,” and that “protected sleep” programs have limited impact on total sleep time and no impact on objective measures of alertness and performance.