What has CGA ever done for us?

Graham Ellis discusses the NIHR funded research project looking into the effectiveness of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessments. As part of the project an extensive Delphi exercise is being undertaken which will include staff, patients carers and researchers.  As part of the Delphi exercise a CGA consensus meeting will be held at the BGS Autumn Meeting in Glasgow on the 24th November at 9:30-13:30.

We are used to the idea that CGA is effective.  That still leaves us with a few problems.  Who does CGA help?  How does CGA help?  What are the crucial elements that make it effective?  Are wards better than teams and how can we be sure?

The challenge with black box interventions (complex interventions of multiple parts) is properly understanding the component parts and how they relate to each other.  If you don’t know how something works it can be hard to replicate it or even to improve on it.  

In order to better understand CGA, an NIHR funded research project is conducting an extensive Delphi exercise.  This includes staff, patients carers and researchers.  As part of the Delphi exercise we are hosting a CGA consensus meeting at the BGS Autumn Meeting in Glasgow on the 24th November at 9:30-13:30.  The hope is that we can ultimately build a national and perhaps international consensus on what CGA should be.  We will also be presenting early results from the latest update of the Cochrane review along with qualitative interviews. 

BGS members are invited to contribute to the discussion and to building consensus around this cornerstone of specialist care.  Some of the CGA trialists will be there too. Places for the consensus meeting are limited so please email mike.gardner@ndph.ox.ac.uk if you are interested in attending this parallel meeting.  Please note delegates will be expected to participate actively in the consensus exercise so you have been warned!