Announcement: Frailty Science 2.0–Website Update

As you may have noticed, our website has a fabulous new look and feel, as well as several new, interesting features! 

 

• The Johns Hopkins Fighting Frailty Podcast: Intended for patients, caregivers, physicians, researchers, and the interested public alike, this new series explores areas of frailty science research and practice.  The first podcast features Dr. Jeremy Walston, who gives an overview of the biological and physiological aspects of frail, vulnerable persons—including the age-related biology, cellular changes and inflammatory pathways, glucose metabolism and mitochondrial dysregulation, as well as weakened stress response systems.   Dr. Walston addresses a broad range of questions from a basic definition of frailty to the consequences of COVID-19.  For instance, Dr. Walston explains how grip strength, unintentional weight loss, walking speed, low activity, and fatigue assessment can combine in an aggregate measure of pre-frailty and frailty.  Beyond that, Dr. Walston suggests how physical activity and a high-quality protein diet can slow the progress towards frailty, and maintain robustness. He also mentions scientific research on the horizon that may help fight frailty on the cellular level.  The podcast’s next installment features Dr. Melissa Hladek, who discusses self-efficacy and frailty. Student/volunteer with Frailty Science, Mr. Ramana Kolady, hosts the series. You can listen here.   

 

• The Sheldon Gottlieb, MD, Photography Gallery:  There’s more to  Sheldon Gottlieb, MD, than meets the eye.  Known for his compassion as a cardiologist with a special interest in caring for those living with diabetes and heart failure, Dr. Gottlieb has provided excellent care for Johns Hopkins’ patients for more than 30 years.  He truly enjoys getting to know patients and their stories, and he treasures them.  One of the ways he has captured his appreciation for people who entrust him with their care is to see them not only through the lens of a watchful physician, but also through the camera’s lens as an excellent amateur photographer.  For those of you who have visited the third floor of the Mason F. Lord Building at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Campus, you may have noticed an exhibit with his images: “An Appreciation of Caring” features roughly a dozen images in both inpatient and outpatient settings, collectively revealing the depth of the doctor/patient relationship.  Dr. Gottlieb plans to publish an art photography book one day; until then, we are pleased and grateful that he has allowed us to feature a sampling of his remarkable images on our website for your enjoyment and reflective contemplation.  Visit the gallery here. 

 

• Curated Searchable Library:  As you may know, the field of Frailty Science is relatively young, emerging only a few decades ago. In an effort to promote sentinel publications and studies on the subject, we have compiled a well-curated searchable Frailty Research Library.  Explore the science here.  

 

Moreover, returning visitors to our website will see a wonderful new homepage that is easy to navigate.  It succinctly promotes the latest content: featured clinical topics; a research spotlight; the latest blog topic; the Fighting Frailty podcast; the Gottlieb gallery; and our Twitter feed.  The user-friendly “Frailty Science 2.0” website is a significant upgrade.  Please tell us what you think and what you’d like to see more of!