KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Professor Jacqueline Close

Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney and Neuroscience Research Australia

Professor Jacqueline Close is a consultant geriatrician working in orthopaedics and general surgery at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney.  She has provided direct clinical care to older people in the surgical setting for the last 20 years and continues to explore new ways to deliver care to older people in this setting.

She is the Clinical Director of the Falls, Balance and Injury Research Centre at Neuroscience Research Australia. Her primary research areas include falls in people with cognitive impairment and dementia and particularly the relationship of cognitive function to postural stability, falls and fractures. She has an epidemiological interest in the impact of falls and injury to health service use and the way in which health services are designed to prevent and manage falls and injury in older people. This includes exploring variation in practice within and between hospitals. She has published over 150 peer reviewed research articles.

She is a founder and Co-Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Hip Fracture Registry, was the lead author on the Australian and New Zealand Guideline for Hip Fracture Care and chaired the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care topic working group which led to the production of the Hip Fracture Care Clinical Care Standard in 2016. She sits on a number of State and National committees in relation to Aged Health and is the Immediate Past President of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine.

Dr Jugdeep Dhesi

British Geriatrics Society, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

Trained in general internal medicine and geriatrics in Leicester and London. PhD examining the effects of vitamin D on neuromuscular function in older patients who fall (2004). Appointed Consultant Geriatrician at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in 2005.

Clinical lead for the POPS service, proactive care of older people undergoing surgery. The team provides hands on care to patients throughout their surgical journey, including pre-operative assessment and optimisation, in patient medical management and rehabilitation and discharge planning. This innovative and award winning service is well established and recognised as a quality service nationally and internationally.

Honorary Reader at Kings College London, with research interests including preoperative optimisation of frail older people, health services research focusing on surgical patient pathways and postoperative delirium. Education and training role having established the first foundation and specialist registrar training programmes in perioperative medicine, co-authored e-learning modules, MSc modules and multiple textbook chapters. 

National roles include President Elect of Age Anaesthesia Association, Vice President Clinical Quality British Geriatrics Society, Chair of POPS SIG at the British Geriatrics Society, steering group of NELA and RcoA perioperative medicine and involvement in writing of variety of NICE, RCoA, RCP and BGS guidelines.

Twitter Handle: @JKDhesi 

1. Which topics and sessions will you be addressing and participating in as part of the program? I will be delivering a lecture on perioperative care for older people and a second session on hot topics in the field of perioperative medicine as relevant to older patient
2. Why should these sessions not be missed? I believe these sessions will be useful for all geriatricians whether or not they work in perioperative medicine. This is because it is important for geriatricians to recognize that the principles of geriatric medicine can be applied in a variety of settings and that through using evidence based methodology we can achieve good outcomes for our patients regardless of the setting.  In the second session I will build on the subject by discussing some of the hot topics relating to perioperative medicine in older people and the audience will gain a deeper understanding of the specialist field of perioperative medicine.