Throughout his storied 30-year career as a geriatrician, Dr. Michael Malone has been a pioneer in the care of older adult patients. Malone, who plans to retire from his roles as Medical Director of Senior Services and Director of Home Care for Advocate Health – Midwest in December, was recognized with the 2024 Silver Birch Award by the American College of Emergency Physicians at its Scientific Assembly in September.
Each year, the Silver Birch Award honors an individual whose work and advocacy has advanced the field of geriatric emergency medicine. Malone received the award in recognition of his pioneering long-time work with Acute Care for Elders (ACE) and the development of ACE Tracker, a tool used to support interprofessional teams caring for older adults in the emergency department.
“Dr. Malone has been a champion of geriatric emergency medicine since GEDC started,” said GEDC Co-PI Kevin Biese, MD, MAT. “His welcoming, collaborative, eternally optimistic spirit has been a guiding light for our work. He is a hero to many of us, and we are beyond grateful for his leadership and help improving emergency care of older adults throughout the country and world.”
Malone, who serves as a GEDC Core Faculty member, has been instrumental in GEDC’s growth and hosted the first GEDC Bootcamp in Wisconsin. From that start in late 2014, Dr. Malone and his team have implemented and accredited one of the nation’s largest programs, with 22 geriatric emergency departments serving more than 250,000 older adult emergency encounters annually.
In his roles with Advocate Health – Midwest, Malone has primarily served adults living in inner-city Milwaukee, a vulnerable patient community that has historically been underserved. Malone implemented numerous programs for geriatric care, such as a community-based falls prevention program in Milwaukee County, as well as programs to improve care for older adults living with Alzheimer’s disease in Wisconsin and Illinois. He also helped create Project Echo to prepare the next generation of workers for geriatric medicine and served as Director of the Geriatrics Fellowship Program at Advocate Health for 25 years.
One of Malone’s most lasting contributions to the field of geriatric emergency medicine is the Journal of Geriatric Emergency Medicine (JGEM), which he started with fellow GEDC Core Faculty Member Dr. Teresita Hogan.
JGEM began at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee as the Geriatric Emergency Department Newsletter, which included information about the hospital’s geriatric emergency department program. Malone and Hogan asked if they could integrate principles of geriatric medicine into the newsletter, and when the newsletter became popular with other medical schools, it grew to become an academic journal.
“Dr. Malone’s impact on geriatric practice has been significant both in scale and scope,” said GEDC Program Director Aaron Malsch. “As my mentor and boss for over 10 years, I would like to congratulate Mike on an exceptional career improving care for vulnerable older adults and thank him personally for his friendship.”