On Racism & Ageism: Ramona Rhodes, Sharon Brangman, Tim Farrell, and Nancy Lundebjerg

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GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Podcast 46 min 4 speakers 2 chapters transcribed 8 hours ago

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What structural racism and ageism did the COVID‑19 pandemic reveal?

Eric Widera 0:01

Hey, Jerry Pal listeners, this is Eric.

Alex Smith 0:04

This is Alex.

Eric Widera 0:05

And Alex, we got a special intro for today's show. Who is our intro guest?

Alex Smith 0:10

Our intro guest, we're delighted to welcome back Meg Walhagen, professor in school nursing at UCSF, big proponent of hearing loss advocacy and research. Meg, thank you for your generous donation to Jerry Pal.

Meg Wallhagen 0:25

Oh, well, you're very welcome. When I think about supporting Geri Powell, what comes to mind is its creative, in-depth, interprofessional discussions of current data and clinical controversy spanning the areas of geriatrics and palliative care. Plus, I get to hear Alex sing.

Eric Widera 0:44

Well, that's got to be our new tagline, Alex, right there. That was so perfect. We

0:49

also

Eric Widera 0:49

did not feed her that line. So

0:51

Eric Widera 0:51

love that. And Meg, just one shout out before we get to the main show. You're doing a survey, right, that you're asking anybody over 18 with or without hearing loss to answer some questions about what?

Meg Wallhagen 1:05

Over-the-counter hearing aids. The FDA was recently able to come out with specifications around selling over-the-counter hearing aids. And we're really interested in finding out more about what people know about these, whether they are interested in buying them, what their perceptions are and things like that. So it's a relatively straightforward survey that I'm working with Nick Reed at Johns Hopkins to sort of get some information.

Eric Widera 1:30

Great. Well, if all of our listeners, if you could take a second, go to the Jerry Powell Show Notes for this podcast and click on the bottom, the survey. We'll have a link to it. It'll take you directly to the survey. Help Meg out. Help think about this issue too. And Meg, again, very big thank you for supporting the podcast. And now on to the show. Thank you. Welcome to the Jerry Powell podcast. This is Eric Guadera. This

Alex Smith 1:54

is Alex Smith.

Eric Widera 1:55

And Alex, who do we have with us today?

Alex Smith 1:57

We are delighted to welcome Ramona Rhodes, who is a geriatrician and palliative care doctor and member of the board of directors for the American Geriatric Society. Welcome to the Jerry Powell podcast, Ramona.

Ramona Rhodes 2:10

Thank you.

Alex Smith 2:11

And speaking of the American Geriatric Society, we are delighted to welcome Nancy Lundberg. Hopefully I said her name somewhat close. She'll correct me if I'm wrong, who is CEO of the American Geriatric Society. How'd I do, Nancy?

Nancy Lundebjerg 2:24

You did great. No need for me to get rid of that pesky J in my name.

Alex Smith 2:31

And we are delighted to welcome Sharon Brangman, who is a geriatrician and chair of the Department of Geriatrics at Upstate Medical University. Welcome to the GeriPal podcast, Sharon.

Sharon Brangman 2:42

Thanks for having me.

Alex Smith 2:43

And we're delighted to welcome back Tim Farrell, who was previously on a podcast with Doug White about should we use age as a factor in allocating scarce resources? Tim is a geriatrician, associate chief for age friendly health at the University of Utah and chair of the AGS Ethics Committee. Welcome back to the Jerry Pell podcast, Tim. Great to be back. Thanks, Alex.

Eric Widera 3:04

So we're going to be talking about the intersection between structural racism and ageism. But before we go into that topic, Ramona, I think you have a song request for Alex.

Ramona Rhodes 3:14

I do. It's called A Change Is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke.

Eric Widera 3:20

And can you describe why you picked that song?

Ramona Rhodes 3:23

I grew up listening to Sam Cooke, even when he was part of a gospel group called the Soulsters, I believe. And I just think that this is a very... appropriate song for all of the efforts that are taking place within the American Geriatric Society, starting with this paper, this structural intersection that we're going to be talking about between structural racism and ageism. So I think that it's really appropriate.

Alex Smith 3:51

Thank you. I love this song. I had to move it down two whole steps and we'll see if I can reach it. I wish we could hear you sing it, Ramona. I know you're a singer. One of these days. All right, here we go. Here's a little bit.

4:04

I was born by the river in a little tent. Oh, and just like that river, I've been running ever since. It's been a long, a long time coming. But I know a change is going to come. Oh, yes, it will.

Eric Widera 4:33

Thank you, Alex.

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Chapters

2 chapters

1 What structural racism and ageism did the COVID‑19 pandemic reveal? 0:01–25:38 2 How did the AGS statement after George Floyd’s murder spark the research project? 25:38–46:24

Speakers

4 identified

Sharon Brangman 11 min Eric Widera 7 min Nancy Lundebjerg 6 min Alex Smith 5 min

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Topics in this episode

FDA 1 COVID-19 1 Alex Smith 2 UCSF 1 Eric Widera 1 Johns Hopkins 1 Jags 1 Meg Wallhagen 1 Sharon Brangman 1 American Geriatric Society 3 Nick Reed 1 Ramona Rhodes 1

Source

Recorded26 Jan 2023

Publisherrss.libsyn.com ↗

Transcriptspeaker-named · 100+ languages

Handlerec:20524614

Show notes

The Covid epidemic laid bare two major structural issues. First, Black and Latinx persons experienced much higher rates of mortality than other groups. Second, as we discussed in last week's podcast, older adults, particularly those in nursing homes, were far more likely to die than younger individuals. These are structural issues because the fundamental causes of these issues were not biological issues, they were social. These worse outcomes were not due to differences in genes, they are due to structural racism and ageism. In today's podcast we talk about the intersection of racism and ageism. We use the Covid pandemic and lack of diversity in trials for recently approved Alzheimer's drugs aducanumab and (to a lesser extent) lecanemab as springboards for discussion. Our guests Tim Farrell, Ramona Rhodes, and Nancy Lunderbjerg wrote an article in JAGS on this issue, and Sharon Brangman wrote a separate JAGS article on the need to achieve diversity in study populations. In a third piece, Ramona Rhodes wrote about efforts to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion at JAGS (in the journal itself, including content and editorial leadership). The article was titled, "Change is coming" - which also gives you a hint as to today's song request. One final note: at the start of today's podcast we thank one of our generous donors, Meg Wallhagen, and ask her why she donated to GeriPal. A prior guest on GeriPal, Meg is a tireless advocate and researcher for hearing impairment issues affecting older adults. She has a study that is open to recruitment for any adult - hearing impaired or not - please see the blurb below to learn more and participate. Enjoy! -@Alex Smith From Meg Wallhagen: The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) now allows hearing aids to be sold Over-the-Counter (OTC-HAs) to adults with mild to moderate hearing loss. We – Meg Wallhagen from UCSF and Nick Reed from John Hopkins University - are interested to learn what people like you know about OTC-HAs and if you would consider buying them. The survey should only take about 10-20 minutes to complete. If you are willing to consider taking the survey, please click on the following link to learn more. https://ucsf.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9ZbReHYH72m82gK

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