In 2015, GSA released a report on the detection of cognitive impairment and the diagnosis of dementia (GSA, 2015). The report, developed by the GSA Workgroup on Cognitive Impairment Detection and Earlier Diagnosis (“GSA Workgroup”), underscored the value of detecting cognitive impairment and providing timely diagnostic evaluations for older adults.
The report emphasized that various members of the primary care team, including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and nurses, along with their office staff, play important roles in preventive care, diagnosis, and follow-up for individuals with dementia and their families.
The GSA Workgroup created a framework with four steps, each intended to improve health‐related outcomes and well‐being for people living with dementia and their families. The four steps—Kickstart, Assess, Evaluate, and Refer (KAER)— are designed to achieve greater awareness of cognition and brain health in older adults (Kickstart), increase detection of cognitive impairment (Assess), initiate earlier diagnostic evaluation (Evaluate), and make referrals for educational and supportive community services for people with dementia (Refer).
GSA first published The GSA KAER Toolkit for Brain Health in 2017 and has continued to update the Toolkit to accommodate changes to clinical evidence and the availability of new educational and clinical resources. Experts soon realized that the KAER framework can be applied across health conditions and the first GSA KAER Toolkit for Obesity was published in 2022. This current revision includes updated content and has been adapted for web-based use.
Primary care teams have varying degrees of familiarity with weight management and may operate within different types of structures, organizations, and geographic regions. Therefore, care team members who consider using the GSA KAER framework in their clinical workflows may find specific steps to be more relevant than others and are encouraged to adopt processes that make sense within their clinical context.