The PG-SGA is a systematic way of gathering important history and physical exam information.

• Standardized and scored history and physical.
• Obviously the patient has to be able to help.
• Otherwise a relative or caregiver familiar with the person.
• Actually, it's not a bad idea to validate all historical information for all patients with someone who knows the person, especially if the person is elderly and subject to memory deficits.
•  To the right is an image of the standard PG-SGA form. Click on it for an enlarged and printable sample.

Print yourself a copy of the form so you have something to work along with, as we're going to go through it in some detail.

We will start with history part of the form, boxes 1 through 4.