GeriatRx

03/02/2026

No one warned me that building a company would test my faith more than my skill set.

This week I was invited to speak about how faith has shaped my journey in building GeriatRx

And it made me pause.

When I started, I expected long hours and strategy pivots.

I did not expect it to deepen my faith.

Entrepreneurship strips you down to what you really believe. Not what sounds good. What you lean on when the outcome is not guaranteed.

There were moments I did not know how things would come together. Logic said slow down. Play it safe.

Faith said move.

Faith in God. Faith in myself. Faith in the vision before there was proof.

I tried to make everything make sense on paper. Work hard enough and it should work out.

But entrepreneurship does not follow clean formulas.

It requires belief before evidence. Gratitude before results. Discipline when no one is watching.

We glamorize wins here. We do not talk enough about the quiet conviction it takes to keep going when nothing looks certain.

For me, faith became the anchor.

Has entrepreneurship strengthened your faith or shaken it?

What carried you through the season where skill alone was not enough?

02/26/2026

Everyone in the room had experienced medication side effects.

Not one person had ever had a one hour medication review with a pharmacist.

Yesterday we hosted our first faith based community event with White Memorial Presbyterian Baptist Church.

We reviewed real cases. High risk medications. Stacked prescriptions added over time.

When I asked who had struggled with medication side effects, almost every hand went up.

When I asked who had ever received a comprehensive aging focused medication review, not one hand did.

That is the gap.

And for many families, cost is the barrier.

So we created the GeriatRx Foundation, our nonprofit arm dedicated to expanding access to medication safety education and deprescribing services for families who cannot afford them.

Through the Foundation, donations support:

Community workshops
Spring and summer health fairs
Medication optimization and deprescribing services
Our partnership with Breathe Studio integrating mobility and movement into whole person care

If you believe older adults deserve more than rushed appointments and unmanaged side effects, support the mission.

The link to learn more or donate will be in the comments.

Medication safety should not be a luxury.

02/20/2026

The BCGP pass rate is around 53%.

That’s nearly 20% lower than most other pharmacy board certifications.

I passed it on my first attempt in 2017.
I passed recertification on the first attempt again this fall.

And I was never the “natural test taker.”

So what made the difference?

I stopped studying just medications.

When I was a pharmacy manager, I saw something textbooks do not teach you:

Older adults are not just managing prescriptions.
They are navigating ageism.
Caregiver strain.
Lack of advance directives.
Antipsychotics started without consent.
Families unsure what hospice really means.

The BCGP exam tests pharmacotherapy.

It also tests whether you understand aging.

Here’s what actually moved the needle for me:
1. I studied what I knew the least about, not what felt comfortable.
2. I read primary literature and learned how to critique clinical trials.
3. I focused on clinical significance, not just statistical significance.
4. I understood capacity, guardianship, power of attorney, and patient rights.
5. I trained myself to see the whole person, not just the medication list.

Deprescribing matters.

But continuity of care matters more.

If you are considering board certification in geriatrics, do not let the pass rate intimidate you.

Prepare differently.

Study the uncomfortable areas.
Learn the systems.
Understand ethics.
Respect the complexity of aging.

Board certification is not just about passing an exam.

02/18/2026

Medication safety is not just a clinical issue. It is a quality of life issue.

I am looking forward to joining the community at White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh for a Lunch and Learn on Deprescribing to Optimize Medication Use.

Too often, older adults are prescribed medications that were never reassessed, never tapered, and sometimes no longer necessary. Deprescribing is a thoughtful, evidence-based process that helps ensure medications continue to serve the patient rather than harm them.

During this session, we will discuss:

• How to recognize when a medication may no longer be appropriate
• Questions patients and caregivers can ask their providers
• The connection between medication burden, falls, cognition, and overall wellbeing
• Practical steps to support safer medication use

This will be the first of many conversations within communities as part of our Modern Aging in Place Panel initiative. Faith communities are trusted spaces, and they play a powerful role in supporting older adults and caregivers. Bringing medication safety education into these spaces is both necessary and timely.

Our goal is simple. Help people understand that their voices matter in their healthcare decisions.

If you are in the Raleigh area and want to better understand how to advocate for yourself or a loved one, I invite you to register.

Tuesday, February 24
11:30 a.m.
Registration required by February 19

Looking forward to continuing this work and expanding these conversations across the community.

02/17/2026

Today we honor the life and legacy of Rev. Jesse Jackson, a civil rights leader who spent decades reminding this nation of a powerful truth
Our voices matter.

He reminded us that our voices matter. That dignity matters. That being heard is not a privilege but a right.

Rev. Jackson stood with communities too often dismissed. He amplified those who were overlooked. He created space where silence once existed.

At GeriatRx, that message resonates deeply.

Older adults are often talked about but not talked to. Care plans are created without meaningful collaboration. Medications are prescribed without full conversations. Concerns are minimized.

We believe aging adults deserve better.

We commit to listening.
We commit to asking questions.
We commit to advocacy.
We commit to deprescribing when appropriate.
We commit to protecting dignity.

Because medication safety is not just clinical. It is civil.

Health equity begins when people are heard.

This Black History Month, we honor Rev. Jesse Jackson’s legacy by continuing the work in our own lane.

Ensuring every older adult knows

Your voice matters here.

02/11/2026

Yesterday, I had a full circle moment at UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy

My mentee Nate Gilmore III invited me to discuss GeriatRx and how we started our journey into entrepreneurship on behalf of the Industry Pharmacists Organization.

I was finishing our session in the same classroom I once sat in as a pharmacy student. I said my last sentence… and one of my former professors, Scott Singleton , walked in.

That stopped me.

There was a season earlier in my path when things got messy. At one point, I was kicked out of pharmacy school and had to delay my 4th year rotations by a year. I still had rent to pay. I still had responsibilities. There wasn’t room to fail.

Scott wasn’t just a professor. He gave me one of my first real opportunities. I worked in his antimicrobial research lab. I leaned into medicinal chemistry. I learned to think critically about how drugs interact at a molecular level and what that means for real people. We scoured over pathways for new drugs in exploring mdea Efflux pump inhibitors!

Fast forward.

Yesterday, I wasn’t in that room trying to survive. I was in that room teaching. Medication safety. Deprescribing. Brain health. Falls prevention. Because one unnecessary medication can change someone’s entire life.

And my old teacher was there to see it.

Resilience isn’t loud. It’s not dramatic. It’s a series of quiet decisions to keep going when the story could have ended differently.

If your path feels delayed or complicated, stay with it.

Sometimes the comeback happens in the exact room where you once questioned yourself.

What’s a full circle moment you’ve experienced?

02/10/2026

02/09/2026

Aging America isn’t coming. It’s already here.

In 2025, the U.S. has over 61 million adults age 65 and older and that number now rivals the population of children.

That single fact should change how we think about healthcare.

Too many older adults are told their symptoms are just part of getting older. Dizziness. Brain fog. Falls. Fatigue. Loss of independence.

Often, it isn’t aging.
It’s medications that were never re-evaluated as the body changed.

This is no longer a niche issue. It’s a systems issue.

If you work in healthcare, senior living, or aging services, the question isn’t whether aging will impact your work.
It’s whether your systems are built to support it safely.

When was the last time medications were truly reviewed instead of automatically renewed?

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025/older-adults-outnumber-children.html

02/05/2026

Silence is how powerful systems protect themselves.

Look at how long it took for the Epstein files to surface. Years of calls. Years of waiting. Years of knowing something was wrong before anything moved.

That time lapse matters.

In healthcare, I see the same pattern. Oversight delayed. Accountability slow. Harm normalized while people are told to wait.

Older adults don’t have time as a luxury anymore.

They were taught to trust the system. Silence became the price of access.

Over time, that compliance turns into quiet harm. Medications that accumulate without review. Symptoms dismissed as aging. Trauma reframed as inevitable.

Different system. Same failure.

When action takes years, the most vulnerable pay the price in real time.

If you’re a CEO or executive leader in healthcare, aging services, or senior living, this is the moment to act.

Train your staff to know what to look for.
Teach them how to question what’s been normalized.
Give them permission to speak up before harm compounds.

We already do this work. Just tell us where to go.

If capacity is the barrier, we can step in and do the assessments.

What are we waiting for?

02/03/2026

This week’s snowstorm was more than an inconvenience. It was a stress test.

For many older adults, weather disruptions don’t just cancel plans. They interrupt medication access, increase fall risk, worsen confusion, and amplify isolation.

In healthcare, we often think about emergency preparedness in terms of power and supplies. What gets missed is how fragile medication routines can be when conditions change.

Delayed refills.
Missed doses.
Side effects compounded by cold, dehydration, and limited mobility.

Medications that already increase fall risk don’t exist in a vacuum. They meet icy walkways, disrupted care, and stretched support systems.

These moments don’t create new problems.
They expose the ones that were already there.

Medication safety and deprescribing matter beyond the clinic. Regimens that only work under perfect conditions aren’t safe for real life, especially for older adults.

What risks are we only noticing once something goes wrong?

02/02/2026

When I first started showing up on LinkedIn, it felt electric.
Sharing ideas. Challenging norms. Connecting with people who cared about deprescribing and doing this work differently.

Then over the past year, my enthusiasm to be present here dipped.

Not because the work mattered less.
Because the work got heavier.

While I was quieter online, we were building. Integrating GeriatRx directly into geriatric healthcare. Partnering with home care agencies. Walking into CCRCs. Sitting with families. Educating staff. Having the conversations that rarely happen but change everything when they do.

Standing in rooms with caregivers, hearing the same stories about falls, confusion, and preventable decline made something very clear to me.

The disconnect from LinkedIn was not disengagement.
It was direction.

That pause pushed me toward blazing a new path. One focused less on talking about medication safety and more on embedding it into care models where lives are actually impacted.

Medication risk remains one of the most overlooked threats to older adults. Falls, hospitalizations, cognitive changes, loss of independence. Too often these are treated as inevitable parts of aging instead of preventable outcomes.

Every senior needs medication education.
Every older adult deserves a medication safety check to identify risk before harm happens.

If you are a home care or CCRC executive, I am personally challenging you to comment or reach out. Leadership is required to change this.

If you are not an executive, reshare this until it reaches someone who is.

We are welcoming collaborators into this work with open arms. At minimum, education and awareness. At best, a system-level shift that saves lives.

This is not about showing up online.
It is about showing up where it matters.

And this work is just getting started.

02/01/2026

I am starting this GoFundMe for Bil, Shanon, and Cole Schmidtkn… DANIEL STRAUSE needs your support for Help Bil and Shanon After Tragic Loss and Medical Bills