Seventy-three percent of older adults have two chronic conditions, and 36% have four or more, leading to management with polypharmacy. One in 5 older adults uses 5 or more prescription medications and is taking a medication that adversely affects a co-existing condition. Polypharmacy bidirectionally impacts physical function and, therefore, physical activity. Adults who participate in aerobic and strengthening activity recommendations have a greatly reduced risk for all-cause mortality. Physical therapists who understand how the movement system interacts with multimorbidity and polypharmacy are uniquely qualified to guide complex patients through safe and effective exercise programs to improve physical function and reduce mortality. This session will use the ACSM exercise recommendation guidelines to consider each multimorbidity’s effect on the exercise prescription, balance polypharmacy considerations, and maximize patient safety and exercise dosing for meaningful results. Using exemplar cases, the learner will be challenged to recognize patterns of multimorbidity and pharmacotherapy, discuss the role of the physical therapist within the multidisciplinary team and in patient communication, and optimize patient outcomes. The Beers List of potentially inappropriate medications to be avoided in older adults will be incorporated, and a schema will be provided to integrate advanced clinical reasoning into the care of complex patients.
Live Webinar
Thu, Aug 13, 2026 at 12:00 pm EDTCEUs/Hours Offered: AK/2.0; AL/2.0; AR/2.0; AZ/2.0; CA/2.0; CO/2.0; CT/2.0; DC/2.0; DE/2.0; FL/2.0; GA/2.0; HI/2.0; IA/2.0; IACET/0.2; ID/2.0; IL/2.0; IN/2.0; KS/2.0; KY/2.0; MA/2.0; MD/2.0; ME/2.0; MI/2.0; MO/2.0; MS/2.0; MT/2.0; NC/2.0; ND/2.0; NE/2.0; NH/2.0; NY/2.0; OK/2.0; OR/2.0; PA/2.0; RI/2.0; SC/2.0; SD/2.0; TX/2.0; UT/2.0; VA/2.0; VT/2.0; WA/2.0; WI/2.0; WY/2.0
Learning Outcomes
- After this course, the participant will be able to formulate necessary changes to exercise prescriptions for complex older adult patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy.
- After this course, participants will be able to formulate a practical clinical reasoning workflow using the provided schema to immediately integrate multimorbidity, polypharmacy, and exercise prescription into their Monday morning patient care schedule.
- After this course, participants will be able to create an effective communication framework to confidently discuss polypharmacy, patient safety, and functional outcomes with the entire multidisciplinary team.
Agenda
| 0-5 Minutes | Introduction and review of learning outcomes |
| 5-20 Minutes | Multimorbidity and polypharmacy background |
| 20-40 Minutes | Effective Exercise Dosing in the older adult |
| 40-80 Minutes | Schema for consideration of multimorbidity, polypharmacy and exercise prescription in the complex older adult patient |
| 80-100 Minutes | Case Study 1 |
| 100-115 Minutes | Case Study 2 |
| 115-120 Minutes | Questions |
Presented By
Robin Schroeder
PT DPT, GCS, OCS, CSCS, CLT, A-CEEAA
Dr. Robin Schroeder currently works as a full-time clinician in the Outpatient Orthopedics and Sports Department at Stanford Healthcare, California.
She earned her MPT from the University of Southern California and her transitional DPT from Arcadia University. She has dual clinical specialist board certifications from the APTA in Geriatrics and Orthopedics.
She has served as faculty on the Orthopedic Residency Committee at Stanford since 2016 and on the Residency Committee since 2019. She serves as the physical therapy liaison for the Agile Consortium at Stanford Healthcare, working to improve recognition and treatment of frailty.
Clinically, Robin has worked in Outpatient Orthopedics and Geriatrics, Acute Care, Rehabilitation, Skilled Nursing, Cardiac Rehab, Outpatient Organ Transplant, Aquatic Therapy, Lymphedema, and Cancer Care.
Specializing in the care of the complex older adult patient, Robin is on the faculty of the Certified Expert in Exercise for the Aging Adult (CEEAA), through the Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy, and assisted in the development of the Advanced Credentialed Expert in Exercise for the Aging Adult Course. She is the new Hybrid-CEEAA course administrator.
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Financial disclosures: The presenter received an honorarium for this course.
Non-financial disclosures: The presenter has no non-financial disclosures.
Sponsor Disclosure: This Course is presented by PhysicalTherapy.com, a Continued site.
Content Disclosure: This learning event does not focus exclusively on any specific product or service.
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