The duke approach to faculty development in geriatric medicine

A number of studies have documented that there is an inadequate number of physicians trained in geriatrics in the United States. Over the last 15 years, we have developed a Geriatric Physician Fellowship Program directed at developing academic geriatric physicians. The first year of the program offers physicians experience in caring for older patients in unique settings such as continuing care retirement communities, long-term care facilities, subspecialty clinics (e.g., those dealing with falls, metabolic bone disease, memory disorders, and gynecological bladder dysfunction), a geriatric evaluation and management unit, and an extended care rehabilitation center. During the second year of the fellowship, the majority of the time is spent on a research project under the supervision of a mentor. For fellows who wish to pursue this research experience, a third year of training is available. In addition to opportunities for geriatrics fellows, junior faculty have access to substantial resources through our Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, which provides salary support, seed grant funds, and a lecture and seminar series. Duke University has been successful in the last 30 years in providing a milieu that allows junior faculty members to develop as clinician investigators. We believe that this program will also provide future academic geriatric physicians to meet the growing need in this co untry. © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Duke Scholars

Author Harvey Jay Cohen Medicine, Geriatrics

Author Kenneth Ward Lyles Medicine, Geriatrics