Local doctor prepares others for 'age tsunami'

The world of health care should be preparing for a tsunami, according to Dr. Janice Knebl.

This is no tsunami of wind and water, though. Knebl was referring to an “age tsunami,” a play off the phrase “age wave” coined by Ken Dychtwald, a psychologist and gerontologist.

Knebl, chief of geriatrics at the UNT Health Science Center, estimates that only 1 to 2 percent of students who graduate from medical school at the center go into gerontology and that there will be a growing need for specialists as the generally educated and affluent baby boomer generation becomes older, she said.

“You’re going to expect to see a lot more of those Hallmark cards, ‘Happy birthday, you turned 60,’” Knebl said.

Knebl was the keynote speaker for the Oct. 11 “Understanding the Older Adult” seminar hosted by the TCU Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences and the Center for Health Aging.

The seminar also included a presentation from Barbara Harty, a geriatric nurse practitioner and a clinical trial coordinator at the UNT Health Science Center; a short play about an elderly woman; and a panel discussion on legal, financial, spiritual, social and medical needs facing older adults.

Knebl, who holds the first endowed chair in geriatrics in the nation for the osteopathic profession – the Dallas Southwest Osteopathic Physicians Inc. Distinguished Chair of Clinical Geriatrics – is known for her work in aging and especially in working with patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Because the baby boomers are better educated and have more money than previous generations, they are more demanding than their parents were and will push for changes in health care and health-care delivery,  said Knebl, co-medical director at the James L. West Alzheimer Center.

“We haven’t even thought how things are going to change,” she said.

Knebl said she expects to see a push for more direct patient access to physicians and more technology and design changes to make it easier for people to remain independent longer. She said that because of the demand for more and better treatment options, research is being conducted on more than four dozen AlzheimerÂ’s-related drugs.

While many students or even other physicians think that geriatrics is a depressing field to work in, Knebl said it is rewarding because her patients have had long, full lives and she is making sure that the last phase of their life is as comfortable and productive as possible.

Additionally, as a health-care worker, she has the ability to influence the care she will receive when she becomes older, she said.

“If I'm not happy with what I see when I’m 80, it’s my own fault because I’m in the field,” she said.

Harty, who also specializes in AlzheimerÂ’s research, said that even if medical and nursing students choose not to go into gerontology, they will have to be adept at working with older adults.

“Do you think you’re not going to be seeing any older people?” she said. Even in pediatrics, she said, health-care professionals come in contact with extended family members and need to be comfortable interacting with them.

Both Harty and Knebl said there needs to be a push on the part of health care educators to ensure that future professionals have a grasp on aging-related issues. Knebl said that when she joined the staff at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine through the UNT Health Science Center, medical students could avoid geriatric rotations during clinical learning sessions. She campaigned for each student to spend a month doing a geriatric rotation, and said that students now are graduating better prepared. Harty said the same requirements should be made in nursing schools.

Educating aging adults and their families about changes that come with growing older is also vital, they said. Although there are changes in cognitive function as people grow older and absent-mindedness becomes more common, people should understand that complete memory loss and dementia is not a normal part of aging, Harty said.

“It’s not if you can’t find you car keys; it’s if you find your car keys and you don’t know what they’re for,” she said.

In 1990, an estimated 4 million Americans and 15 million people worldwide had AlzheimerÂ’s, Harty said. By 2050, she said, 14 million Americans and more than 36 million worldwide are expected to have the disease, and educating people about normal aging and abnormal conditions like AlzheimerÂ’s will prompt movements to better treat or prevent problems.

Knebl said a team approach by physicians, other health care providers, patients and families is the only way to improve the way health care is delivered.

“It’s going to take people coming at it from all their different directions,” she said.

Contact Bassett at ebassett@bizpress.net