About The Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative
We are committed to making change through the education of individuals, and hospital-wide initiatives that create sustainable improvements in practice at all levels.
The Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative (GEDC) is an international collaborative of healthcare professionals, systems, and organizations dedicated to improving the quality of care for older people in Emergency Departments with the goal of reducing harm and improving healthcare outcomes.
GEDC is generously supported by the John A. Hartford Foundation and the Gary & Mary West Health Institute.
Vision & Mission
Our vision is a world where all emergency departments are equipped and able to provide the highest quality of care for their older patients.
Our mission is to bring best practice into action.
We transform and evaluate interdisciplinary best practice in geriatric emergency medicine. Then we build and distribute practical, evidence-based resources, tools, and learning materials that support sustainable, quality care for older adults.
Values
- Share knowledge enthusiastically
- Work openly and collaboratively
- Be curious and innovative
- Be open-minded, creative problem solvers
- Be dedicated advocates for the improved emergency care of older adults
These values support us in our mission. They help ensure the highest quality collaborations in the pursuit of better ED care for older adults.
Our Faculty
Dr. Kevin Biese serves as an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine (EM) and Internal Medicine, Vice-Chair of Academic Affairs, and Co-Director of the Division of Geriatrics Emergency Medicine at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Medicine as well as a consultant with West Health. With the support of the John A. Hartford and West Health Foundations, and alongside Dr. Ula Hwang, he serves as Co-PI of the national Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative. He is grateful to chair the first Board of Governors for the ACEP Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation Program. His passion is for improved education and systems of care for older adults, and he has published multiple materials in both these areas.
Dr. Chris Carpenter is dual-board certified in Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine and is Professor in Emergency Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. His funded research interests include diagnostics, dementia, falls prevention, and implementation science. He is on the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Board of Directors as well as the American College of Emergency Physicians Clinical Policy Committee. He is also Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Academic Emergency Medicine, Associate Editor of both Annals of Internal Medicine’s ACP Journal Club and the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. He co-led the collaboration to develop the American College of Emergency Physician/American Geriatrics Society Geriatric Emergency Department Guidelines As well as the International Standards for Reporting of Implementation Research (StaRI) reporting guidelines. He is also faculty for Emergency Medical Abstracts and Best Evidence in Emergency Medicine courses, as well as a contributor to Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine and Sketchy EBM.
Dr. Teresita Hogan is a Professor of Medicine and Director of Geriatric Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine. Her clinical research interest are Geriatric EM, Quality Improvement, Emergency Pain Management, Emergency Management of Falls in Older Adults, and Models of Care. Dr. Hogan is the ACEP representative to the AGS and serves on the executive committee Section for Enhancing Geriatric Understanding and Expertise among Surgical and Medical Specialists. She is an expert in graduate medical education and led the expert consensus process to establish The Geriatric Competencies for Emergency Medicine Residents.
She has also worked on identifying the number and characteristics of geriatric emergency departments across the United States and is a member of the GEDA Board of Governors.
Dr. Ula Hwang is the Medical Director for Geriatric Emergency Medicine at New York University and a core investigator at the GRECC (Geriatrics Research, Education and Clinical Center) at the James J. Peters Bronx VAMC. Her research focuses on improving the quality of care older adults receive in the ED setting that ranges from observational studies of analgesic safety and effectiveness in older patients to multi-center implementation science studies of geriatric emergency care interventions. Hwang currently co-PIs the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative and is the PI on the Geriatric Emergency care Applied Research (GEAR) network.
Dr. Michael Malone is the Medical Director of Aurora Health Care - Senior Services and the Aurora at Home. He is a Clinical Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He also serves as the Director of the Geriatrics Fellowship Program at Aurora Health Care. Dr. Malone received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas; he completed his internal medicine residency and geriatric fellowship training at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee. His Aurora Health Care practice is to home-bound older persons in inner-city Milwaukee.
Aaron Malsch is the Senior Services Program Manager at AdvocateAuroraHealth (AAH) in Wisconsin & Illinois. He supports several geriatric models of care (NICHE, Geri ED, HELP, ACE Tracker, Geriatric Scholars). His focus is on nursing and interprofessional practice as it relates to the elder population throughout the AAH system of clinics, hospitals, emergency departments, home care services, and long term setting partners. In support of these models of care, Aaron has developed expertise in developing EHR workflow tools and reports to facilitate front line staff’s efforts and demonstrate outcomes. He leads the Geriatric ED implementation and achieved ACEP Geri ED accreditation at all AAH EDs. Aaron contributes nationally to the improvement of care for older adults, highlighted by being Chair of the geriatric committee at the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), co-planner of GEDC symposium at the ENA conference, and reviewer of Geriatric ED Accreditation program at ACEP.
Dr. Don Melady is an emergency physician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada and a founding member of the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative. He is the author of the website www.geri-EM.com – a CME accredited program for geriatric emergency medicine education – and the chair of the Geriatric EM committee of the International Federation of Emergency Medicine.
Alex Ostberg is a Program Manager for the GEDC. He received his MPH from the UNC Gillings School of Public Health in 2022, while concurrently working in the UNC Emergency Department as the chief medical scribe. Prior to this, Alex received his BS in Human Biology from Stanford University. Alex was a certified EMT in Connecticut for 4 years where he was an active volunteer for Darien EMS - Post 53. He is excited to combine his clinical skillset and academic knowledge with the GEDC platform to improve care in older adults.
Dr. Christina Shenvi is an associate professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of North Carolina. She is fellowship-trained in Geriatric Emergency Medicine and is the founder of GEMCast. She is the director of the UNC Office of Academic Excellence, president of the Association of Professional Women in Medical Sciences, co-directs the ACEP/CORD Teaching Fellowship, is on the Annals of EM editorial board, is on the Geriatric ED Accreditation board of governors, and she teaches and writes about time management at timeforyourlife.org.
Heather Wojtarowicz is the Communications Manager of the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative. She received her BA in Strategic Communications and BS in Sociology from Arkansas State University. Before joining the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative, Heather has worked with multiple nonprofits such as Girl Scouts and Habitat for Humanity as a communications professional.