Education, Training Needed for Managing Geriatric Otolaryngology Patients

by David Eibling, MD, Steven Parnes, MD, Karen Kost, MD, Carl Shipp, MD, Kourosh Parham, MD, and Brian McKinnon, MD •

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) recently released a white paper on geriatric competencies for surgeons, and Dr. Parham represented ASGO on this work group. Stakeholders representing several health professions (including the AAO-HNS and the ASGO), patients, and families were all consulted.

These groups, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other payers will vet the ACS standards and contribute to the development of more refined patient-centered outcome measures. Dr. Parham pointed out that although these competencies are applicable to all surgeons, there is little that is specific to otolaryngology, which means that otolaryngologists need to play a role in developing otolaryngology-specific competencies.