Experts on healthy aging from Cedars-Sinai’s growing Center for Translational Geroscience and Geriatrics Program will present their latest research and clinical advances at The Gerontological Society of America’s (GSA) 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting in Seattle, Nov. 13-16.

“We are eager to share the many ways Cedars-Sinai is advancing research and integrated clinical care to help older adults live their lives free of significant disease or disability,” said Sara Espinoza, MD, director of the Center for Translational Geroscience and a recently named GSA fellow. 

During GSA 2024, Espinoza and other new GSA fellows will be formally recognized for their outstanding contributions to the field of gerontology. At the meeting, Espinoza will also present a report on how to successfully recruit older adults to participate in clinical research.

 Espinoza also can discuss preclinical and clinical research now underway at Cedars-Sinai, as well as the emerging field of geroscience, which aims to increase understanding of aging biology and to examine the effect of interventions on the hallmarks of aging in cells, blood and tissues.

Another Cedars-Sinai expert, geriatrician Allison Moser Mays, MD, MAS, will discuss recent innovations in interventions to address loneliness and social isolation among older adults. Research on this topic led by Mays steered the creation of Leveraging Exercise to Age in Place (LEAP), an evidence-based exercise program at Cedars-Sinai proven to decrease older adults’ loneliness, social isolation and fear of falling.  

The LEAP program is one of many efforts Cedars-Sinai has adopted to provide evidence-based, high-quality care for older adults as an Age-Friendly Health System Committed to Care Excellence, a recognition from The John A. Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association of the United States. In 2024, Cedars-Sinai was one of 30 hospitals nationwide selected to be a partner in the IHI’s Age-Friendly Health System-Wide Spread Collaborative, in order to provide age-friendly care to all older people  across the health system.

“As members of an Age-Friendly Health System, we are focused on what matters most to our individual patients, as well as medication safety, mobility and mental functioning, as we develop clinical innovations,” said Sonja Rosen, MD, chief of Geriatric Medicine. 

Additional examples of that age-friendly work include unique strategies Cedars-Sinai has developed to screen and address social determinants of health in older adults, Rosen said, which will be presented at GSA 2024.

Neuropsychologist Mitzi Gonzales, PhD, director of Translational Research in the Jona Goldrich Center for Alzheimer’s and Memory Disorders in the Department of Neurology, will be available to discuss two topics being presented—the association of tau proteins with higher midlife physical activity and lower dementia risk later in life and the effect of sleep quality on cognitive performance in older Hispanic adults.

Clinical geriatric pharmacist Nicha Tantipinichwong, PharmD, also is available to discuss how to best help older patients manage multiple medications.

To schedule a media interview with a Cedars-Sinai expert, please contact Marni Usheroff, 323-317-0556 or marni.usheroff@cshs.org.