ATHENS, Ohio --The spring series of the Ohio UniversityCollege of Osteopathic Medicine's Geriatric Education Brown Bagseminars concludes Monday, May 19 with Jen-Tzer Gau, M.D., Ph.D.,associate professor of geriatrics, presenting "Diabetes in the OlderAdult."
The seminar will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in conference room B-9 at O'Bleness Memorial Hospital.
The presentation will focus primarily on diabetes, a growingproblem for older adults. Due to the increase of obesity and physicalinactivity among aging adults, diabetes is increasing as a risk foraging adults.
Gau will also review the current criterion for the diagnosisof diabetes, the aging effect on the glucose metabolism, themanagement of hyperglycemia and its complications through the reviewof recent research results.
"I hope my talk will help individuals with diabetes bettercontrol their blood sugars and prevent its complications as well ashelp prevent the development of diabetes in those who don't havedisease," said Gau.
Gau is a geriatrician and board-certified internist. Hepractices both in the geriatric clinic in Parks Hall of OU-COM andHarper Clinic in Nelsonville.
Health-care professionals are invited to attend the seminar.Brown bags are welcome. For more information, call the GeriatricEducation Center at (740) 593-2258.
This is the sixth seminar in the spring series. The firstseminar was March 3, with Joan Stroh, presenting "Suicide in theElderly." The second seminar was March 17, with R. Craig Mathews,D.D.S., presenting "Dental Implants and Prosthetics for the Elderly."The third seminar was held April 7, with Lea Blackburn presenting"Frailty in the Elderly." The fourth seminar was held April 21, withJames D. Bové III, D.O., presenting "Diverticular Disease." The fifthseminar was held May 5, with Ann Rathbun, Ph.D., presenting "HealthLiteracy."
"The seminars are designed for an interdisciplinary audience," said Ellen Peterson, R.N., OU-COM geriatric education coordinator."Health professionals from the community regularly attend, in addition to interns, residents and medical students. The diversity ofdisciplines represented by the participants makes for an interestingexchange of ideas."
The sponsors of the seminars include the Department ofGeriatric Medicine/Gerontology, the Western Reserve GeriatricEducation Center and Area Health Education Center and OU-COM.
Peterson said the seminar series was started by a federal grant thatestablished OU-COM as a contributing site to the Western ReserveGeriatric Education Center in September 1994 and has supported manycontinuing education programs.
Provided by the Department of Health and Human Services, the grant supports educational programs ingeriatric and gerontology for physicians, nurses, social workers,counselors and health-care providers to 22 Southeastern Ohio counties.
