GeriPal Turns 3: The Training Wheels Come off

Today is GeriPal’s third birthday.  This news may bring welcome relief to some of our readers as we have finally moved beyond the Terrible Twos.  However, be forewarned, the training wheels are coming off this year.   So, expect a lot more of the same content that has made this last year so fun to recap in this post.

Highlights from the Last Year

There was a lot of memorable moments this last year, however the following are the ones that really stand out for me:

• We launched our sister site ePrognosis and received a huge response from the press with articles in the NY Times, MSNBC, the Daily Beast, Fox News, USA today, and NPR to name a few

• Dan Matlock’s post on being accused of murder went viral with the story being picked up by Colorado Public Radio and the NY Times

• Jim Cleary used a GeriPal post as a reason why Palliative Medicine should embrace social media in the journal Palliative Medicine. 

• GeriPal and Pallimed had another successful year at AAHPM, with Blogs to Boards session and the ever so fun GeriPal/Pallimed party.

• We rolled out our new iPhone app 

Top 10 New Posts of the Year

Length of Stay in Nursing Homes at the End of Life and End Stage Dementia: A Terminal Disease Needing Palliative Care were the most frequently viewed posts of the last year even though the first was written in 2010 and the second in 2009.  There is plenty of love to go around to some of our newer content with about 50,000 pageviews a month plus an additional 1700 readers who receive our posts by email.  Here is a recap of the top 10 NEW posts of the year:

1. When Surrogates Override the DNR: A Terrific Geriatrics and Palliative Care Teaching Video
2. The Dangers of Fleet Enemas
3. Being Accused of Murder
4. A Study of Dignity Therapy on Distress and the End-of-Life Experience
5. What Drugs Should You Avoid In the Elderly: An Update on the Beers Criteria
6. Death of the Gerontological Nurse Practitioner: Part 1 of 2 
7. MMSE and Copyrights Part II: Is the MMSE Derivative of Some Other Work?
8. Decisions on Feeding Tubes in Advanced Dementia
9. Final Chapter: Californians’ Attitudes and Experiences with Death and Dying
10. Advance directives reduce end-of-life costs in New York and Los Angeles

The Future is Bright

So what do we have in store for next year?  We can’t give away all our secrets but if this picture tells you anything, it should be that it’s going to be an interesting year…

by: Eric Widera (@ewidera)