Unlike dense, hospital-focused internal medicine tomes, Ham’s Primary Care Geriatrics is deliberately . Its chapters are structured around the problems a clinician actually encounters in an outpatient setting: falls, memory loss, polypharmacy, incontinence, elder abuse, and end-of-life planning.
A thorough geriatric evaluation goes beyond a simple physical exam. It involves a multidimensional review of the patient's life.
The best digital versions (especially the official eBook from Elsevier or via institutional access) include clickable chapter links. This allows you to jump from “Chapter 12: Falls and Balance Disorders” to “Chapter 18: Pharmacotherapy” in one click.
While the focus often shifts to chronic disease management, prevention remains key. This includes vaccinations for influenza, pneumonia, and shingles, as well as screenings for falls and sensory impairments. Improving a patient’s vision or hearing can have a profound impact on their cognitive health and social engagement, proving that small interventions in primary care yield significant results. Accessing Educational Resources
Perhaps the most vital chapter for the primary care provider concerns polypharmacy. Older adults are often prescribed medications by multiple specialists, leading to a "prescribing cascade." Ham’s advocates for a philosophy of deprescribing. The PDF format allows clinicians to keep the "Beers Criteria" (a list of potentially inappropriate medication use in older adults) and the STOPP/START criteria handy. The text teaches providers how to taper medications safely, prioritizing quality of life over rigid disease targets (e.g., relaxing A1c targets for a patient with limited life expectancy).
In the rapidly evolving field of geriatric medicine, staying updated with authoritative, practical resources is not just an academic exercise—it is a matter of patient safety and quality of life. Among the pantheon of medical textbooks, one name stands out as the gold standard for office-based and clinical management of older adults: .