Rabinowitz I, Luzzati R, Tamir A, Reis S.
Length of patient's monologue, rate of completion, and relation to other components of the clinical encounter: observational intervention study in primary care.
BMJ. 2004 May 22;328(7450):1236.
Rabinowitz I; Tamir A.
The SaM (Screening and Monitoring) Approach to Cardiovascular Risk-Reduction in Primary Care- Cyclic Monitoring and Individual Treatment of Patients at Cardiovascular Risk using the Electronic Medical Record.European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation. 12(1):56-62, February 2005.
Israel Rabinowitz, Ohad Hochman, Rachel Luzzati, Yelena Haifitz, Yuri Shclar, Natalia Kaykov, Alexander Khemlin, Michael Kaffman and Ada Tamir (2010). Monitoring and treatment for cardiovascular risk. Primary Health Care Research & Development, 11 , pp 29-40.
Sela-Katz P1, Rabinowitz I, Shugaev I, Shigorina G. "Basic knowledge of the medication regimen correlates with performance on cognitive function tests and diagnosis of dementia in elderly patients referred to a geriatric assessment unit." Gerontology 56.5 (2010): 491-495.‏
Frid A, Lavner Y, Rabinowitz I. Analysis of Finger Tapping Parameters in People with ADHD. 27th IEEE Convention of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Israel (IEEEI’12) 2012.
Rabinowitz, I. Lavner Y. Association between finger tapping, attention, memory, and cognitive diagnosis in elderly patients. Perceptual & Motor Skills 119.1 (2014): 259-278.
Lavner, Y., & Rabinowitz, I. (2015). Increasing stimulus duration improves attention and memory performance in elderly with cognitive impairment. SAGE Open Medicine, 3, 2050312115621566.‏

Case reports:

8. Rabinowitz I, Reis S.Doctor, there's a fly in my soup! Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, endogenous opioids and visual hallucinations.
Isr Med Assoc J. 2001 Dec;3(12):963-4.

Rabinowitz I, Nasser E, Nassar F, Varkel J.
Airport malaria infection in a passenger returning from Germany.
Isr Med Assoc J. 2004 Mar;6(3):178-9.
Rabinowitz I.
Diagnosis of Cystic Fibrosis and Celiac Disease in an Adult: One Patient, Two Diseases and Three Reminders. Respiratory Care 2005 May; 50(5):644-5.
Rabinowitz I. Polymyalgia Rheumatica Relapse Presenting with Peripheral Pitting Edema. Gerontology 2008; 54:157-159 .

Prose:

"Freddie's Treat"/ Raly Rabinowitz

Home: Contact

GeriCheck

Dear patient and or family caregiver.

I would like to talk to you, about how to improve your health, function, and wellbeing.

Medically, the key to this is going over the Geriatric Syndromes,

The geriatric syndromes are conditions that are common in the elderly and that cause significant functional decline and general deterioration.

Among them are gait problems and falls, cognitive decline, malnutrition, constipation, incontinence, inappropriate medications, depression, and more.

Typically, a geriatric syndrome is multi-factorial, meaning it is caused by more than one reason.

For example, falls can be caused by orthopedic problems (such as knee arthritis), neurologic problems (such as sensation loss in the feet), cardiovascular problems (such as unstable blood pressure), and more.

This means that by uncovering those causes and treating them we can help reduce the burden of the syndrome and improve overall health and function.

But there is another thing that is important to understand about the geriatric Syndromes and this is that they aggravate one another, sometimes even causing a chain reaction.

For example, many elderly people experience constipation. Constipation can cause decreased appetite (termed anorexia). Anorexia can cause weight loss. Weight loss often causes blood pressure and sugar levels to drop. This can mean that the dosages of medications for controlling blood pressure and sugar levels that were good for the person in the past are now inappropriate, the medication load becoming too heavy, and this may cause further weakening and falls. Falls can lead to injury and functional decline.

So, as you can see, identifying geriatric syndromes, uncovering their causes, and treating them is very important. The more syndromes we treat the better off the person will be.

Surprisingly however, the geriatric syndromes are under-recognized and undertreated and the consequence of this is that many elderly people are deteriorating because of conditions that are preventable and treatable.

Now, we strongly feel, that you can take an active role in identifying your geriatric syndromes and bringing them to the attention of your doctor.

For this very purpose, we have created a tool. This tool is a simple phone application and it's called GeriCheck.

All you need to do is to answer one question for each syndrome and take some basic measurements. GeriCheck will then take this information and organize it into a letter to your doctor.

For your doctor's benefit, we have created a sister APP - it's called GeriApp and it will help your doctor treat those syndromes identified by you.

GeriAPP

Dear family physician.

The optimal medical approach to treating elderly people in the community involves covering two fields: The field of Geriatric Syndromes and the field of hospitalization prevention. The field of hospitalization prevention.

A few words first, about the geriatric syndromes and then about hospitalization prevention. The Geriatric syndromes are conditions that cause significant functional decline and general deterioration. Among them are gait problems and falls, cognitive decline, malnutrition, constipation, incontinence, depression, and more.

Typically, a geriatric syndrome is multi-factorial, meaning it is caused by more than one reason. For example, falls can be caused by orthopedic problems (such as knee osteoarthritis), neurologic problems (such as peripheral neuropathy), cardiovascular problems (such as orthostatic hypotension). This means that by uncovering those causes and treating them we can help reduce the burden of the syndrome and contribute to the overall health and function of the elderly patient.
And that, in essence, is what the review of the geriatric syndromes is about- identifying the syndrome, uncovering its causes, and treating them to the best of our ability. The more syndromes we treat the better off our elderly patient will be.

As for prevention of hospitalization.
Hospitalizations are something we always want to avoid. So, after reviewing and treating the geriatric syndromes what we want to do is to look specifically at a short list of common causes of hospitalization in the elderly, and see if our patient is at increased risk for one or more of these.
These include infectious causes (pneumonia, urinary tract infection, and cellulitis), vascular causes (such as acute coronary events or stroke), and exacerbation of chronic respiratory conditions ( such as COPD and Congestive Heart Failure).

Therefore, for each patient –we need to conduct a double review-one of the geriatric syndromes and the other
of common causes of hospitalization.

Now, as a practicing family physician of 18 years and geriatrician of 15, I know, from personal experience that family physicians already possess most of the information needed to carry out a good geriatric assessment. So, it is not so much a matter of providing the information as it is of organizing this information into a practical step by step approach. And this is what we did.

We have designed a working tool for the family physician which enables an efficient review of the geriatric syndromes and a review of causes for hospitalization.

This tool is an App and it's called GeriApp. It is a great tool for a home visit, but it is also possible to use GeriApp for a phone or phone-video visit.

What you need to do is to go to New assessment, work the fields Preparing the Visit, Geriatric Syndromes, and Hospitalization Prevention. Then open Conclusion and Recommendations to find, waiting for you, a comprehensive and practical report. You can e-mail this report from the app to your office and then copy it into the medical record.

Good health and good luck.