Geriatric and Age-Related Diseases
- Course Number: GMS 6484
- Credits: 3
- Course Format: This online course is tailored for asynchronous distance learners.
- Course Syllabus: Download
Course Description
As populations live longer, healthy aging is increasingly challenged by multimorbidity, geriatric syndromes and complex functional decline. This course helps students understand how multisystem aging processes shape clinical presentations in older adults and why aging care requires integrated, systems-based approaches.
Students will explore major geriatric syndromes, including frailty, falls, polypharmacy, delirium and functional impairment. Emphasis is placed on understanding aging as a heterogeneous, whole-body process driven by interconnected biological changes rather than a single-disease model.
Through a patient-centered perspective, the course explores major geriatric syndromes, common age-related diseases, systems-level interactions among multiple organ systems, functional and cognitive changes with aging and the role of care teams in geriatric care.
Course Goals
This course aims to develop an integrated understanding of multisystem aging processes and their impact on complex clinical presentations, while preparing students to evaluate and apply interdisciplinary approaches to the care of older adults with multiple chronic conditions.
