About The Medicine Check

Health decisions and money decisions are the same conversation.

Most people get told about their medications in one appointment and their retirement numbers in another. The Medicine Check is where those two conversations meet.

About Dr. Tyson Garfield

A geriatrician focused on the health and money decisions that shape independence.

I created The Medicine Check for people who want to make aging decisions with more context. Medications, chronic conditions, retirement healthcare costs, family conversations, and daily habits are often treated separately. In real life, they overlap.

My clinical training is in Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine. My additional training in healthcare management and financial education shapes the wealthspan side of this work: helping people think about financial wellness as part of aging well.

None of this replaces your own clinician, pharmacist, or financial professional. What it can do is help you walk into those appointments knowing which question you actually need answered.

What this site helps with

What people actually come here for.

Usually there is something specific going on. A new prescription, a parent who needs more help, a retirement date that suddenly feels close.

01

The medication list keeps growing.

Work out which side effects are worth raising, and which drugs may no longer be earning their place.

02

Nobody budgeted for the health costs.

Put a real number on retirement healthcare and long-term care instead of hoping it works out.

03

Something feels harder than last year.

Check the things that predict independence, early enough that a change still helps.

04

The family conversation keeps stalling.

Turn a vague worry into specific questions everyone can actually discuss.

How to use this site

Education first, with clear boundaries.

The Medicine Check is designed to make complex decisions easier to approach. It does not replace personalized medical, medication, legal, tax, or financial advice.

  • Start with a tool.A calculator or checklist gets the issue into numbers.
  • Then read around it.The Advice Library explains why those numbers matter.
  • Take it to a professional.The output is a conversation starter, never a final answer.