Aging & Quality of Life

In addition to the grants to strengthen geriatrics training at individual academic health centers, in July of 2004 the Foundation’s trustees awarded four grants totaling $12 million to train academic health centers’ faculty in geriatrics. Under the grants, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, New York’s Mount Sinai Medical School and the University of California, Los Angeles will form the Donald W. Reynolds Consortium to Strengthen Faculty Expertise in Geriatrics in U.S. Academic Health Centers. The grants will be managed by Harvey Cohen, MD, Samuel Durso, MD, Rosanne Leipzig, MD, PhD, and David Reuben, MD, respectively.

Related information on the Donald W. Reynolds Consortium:

Duke University – http://careinaging.duke.edu/facultydevelopment

Mount Sinai Medical School – www.mssm.edu/geriatrics/education

University of California, Los Angeles – www.geronet.ucla.edu/centers/reynolds

Each of the four Consortium members will receive a grant of $3 million over six years. In turn, the four Consortium members will: provide fellowships to train clinician educators in geriatrics over six years and continue the training of their own junior faculty members, with a goal of placing as many as possible as faculty in other institutions; offer one-week mini-fellowships and courses to strengthen the knowledge of geriatrics of faculty members who teach medical students and residents in other institutions throughout the United States; and provide on-site consultation to other academic health centers aimed at strengthening their geriatrics training.

Most recently, the Foundation completed a cycle of proposal selection for a third and final cohort of geriatric training grants. Forty-eight academic health centers applied for grants in response to a call for proposals from the Foundation in March 2005. With the assistance of a panel of geriatrics experts, 10 were chosen. The institutions selected and the grant amounts, totaling almost $20 million, are as follows:

A broad range of training activities will be supported under the grants. At the University of Utah, for example, a major focus is on innovative training for practicing primary care physicians that incorporates development of a project to improve the quality of the care they offer in their practice. Vanderbilt University will use innovations in state-of-the-art informatics systems to deliver and reinforce geriatrics content to reach virtually 100 percent of its students, medical and surgical residents and faculty. At the University of California, San Francisco, hospitalists – the most frequent and influential teachers of medical students and residents in inpatient settings – and other faculty will benefit from faculty development in geriatrics in order to improve the geriatrics training of its learners.

Professor of Medicine; Chief, Division of Geriatrics and Medicine; and Director, Multicampus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology


	Aging & Quality of Life The Foundation launched its Aging and Quality of Life Program in 1996. Its goal remains improving the quality of life for America’s elderly by preparing physicians to provide better care for them when they become ill. Most physicians today lack adequate training to meet the needs of the frail elderly patient. Such patients typically suffer from interacting physical, social and psychological conditions –both acute and chronic – that limit their independence and threaten their capacity to function in daily life. The expected dramatic increase in the number of elderly persons in the United States over the coming decades lends urgency to the Foundation’s goal. By 2030 the number of Americans age 65 and over will reach 70 million, 20% of the population and more than double the size of that group in 1995. Those 85 and older are our fastest growing age group. Their numbers will at least double within 30 years, to 8.5 million.

	Faculty member Banu Sezginsoy, M.D. (left) of the University of Oklahoma's Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatric Medicine instructs two medical students during their geriatrics medicine rotation at the VA Hospital's Extended Care Unit.	The first grants under the Aging and Quality of Life Program were awarded by the Foundation’s trustees in 1997 to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, in Little Rock. An $18.4 million grant provided for construction of the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging. Another $10.5 million provided four years of support for the newly established Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics. In 2002 the trustees awarded an additional $3.25 million for continued operating support of the Department over three years and offered $15 million for endowment support, which has been matched by other donors. Under the leadership of David Lipschitz, MD, the Department has become one of the country’s strongest geriatrics programs, providing training for medical students, residents and fellows, attracting over $60 million in support of its research, and building a statewide network of centers devoted to training local caregivers and strengthening clinical services for the elderly.

Online Geriatric Information Clearinghouse	The University of Oklahoma was the second grantee under the Aging and Quality of Life Program. Its Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatric Medicine was established in Oklahoma City in 1999 with the help of an $11.2 million Foundation grant. Most of the grant is devoted to building the Department’s faculty by matching funds from the Endowment Fund Program of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education to endow 10 geriatric medicine faculty positions. Fully staffed and ably led by Marie Bernard, MD, the Department initiated a mandatory rotation in geriatrics for Oklahoma’s third year medical students in 2003. In April of 2000 the Foundation’s trustees approved a major initiative under the Aging and Quality of Life Program, calling on the nation’s academic health centers to undertake comprehensive programs to strengthen the training in geriatrics of medical students, residents and practicing physicians. Sixty-four academic health centers in 34 states responded to the initiative’s first call for proposals, offering up to 10 grants of as much as $2 million each. In May 2001 the trustees accepted the recommendation of a distinguished advisory panel of experts in geriatrics and awarded grants totaling $19.8 million over four years to the following 10 institutions: Cornell University, New York, NY, $2,000,000 Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, $1,999,990 University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, $2,000,000 University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, $2,000,000 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, $1,999,161 University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE, $1,997,188 University of Rochester, Rochester, NY $1,999,346 University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, $2,000,000 Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, $1,839,961 Yale University, New Haven, CT, $2,000,000 All of the 2001 grantees have been successful in developing comprehensive training programs. All are attempting to improve the knowledge and skills that physicians need to care for the elderly, including geriatric assessment and care coordination. A broad range of training activities are supported under the grants, including a new curriculum that integrates aging in both clinical and scientific training at the University of Rochester; the development of a “Geriatric Quick Consult” Web site for students and physicians at Virginia Commonwealth University and a required “geriatrics portfolio” for medical students and residents at the University of Michigan. A detailed description of each grantee’s activities follows this text. The success of the 2001 grantees led the Foundation’s trustees in January 2003 to call for a second round of proposals under the geriatrics training initiative, offering another 10 grants, each totaling as much as $2 million over four years. Sixty-two academic health centers in 27 states and the District of Columbia responded to the call for proposals. Once again, the program’s advisory panel assessed the proposals and recommended that the trustees award 10 grants. A highlight of 2003 was the award in July of grants totaling $19.8 million to the following institutions: Boston University, Boston, MA, $1,995,358 Emory University, Atlanta, GA, $1,949,396 Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, $1,998,805 State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, $1,999,200 University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, $1,975,067 University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, $2,000,000 University of Miami, Miami, FL, $2,000,000 University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO, $1,899,297 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, $1,998,861 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, $2,000,000 The grants encompass a variety of approaches to training in geriatrics. At Boston University, a new Chief Resident Immersion Training program will be created. At the University of Chicago, the development of a Curriculum for the Hospitalized Aging Medical Patient (CHAMP) will take advantage of the University‘s leading role in training physicians who specialize in the care of hospitalized patients. At the University of New Mexico, problem-based cases and Web-based modules will train students and residents who serve a culturally diverse and widely dispersed rural population. More detailed descriptions of the activities supported under the grants can be found at the end of this text. As part of its geriatrics training initiative, the Foundation has provided support to the Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs (ADGAP) to carry out important facilitating activities. ADGAP is using a 2006 grant totaling $1.7 million over four years to host annual meetings of the Foundation’s geriatrics training grantees and to facilitate information exchange among those in America’s academic health centers who are engaged in strengthening geriatrics training of physicians. One novel means of information sharing is POGOe, an online clearinghouse that provides practicing physicians, clinician educators and physicians-in-training high quality geriatric educational materials. The POGOe website can be found at www.pogoe.org. In addition, grants made in 1999, 2002 and 2006, totaling $1.8 million, support ADGAP’s Longitudinal Study of Training and Practice in Geriatric Medicine, which is tracking the extent to which the gap in geriatric training is being closed in the United States. Click here to view a map that represents all of our Aging Program Grantees Other related information: ADGAP/Cincinnati – www.adgapstudy.uc.edu ADGAP/Mt. Sinai – www.americangeriatrics.org/adgap/educationcenter_new.asp University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences – http://www.geriatrics.uams.edu/ University of Oklahoma – www.ouhsc.edu/geriatricmedicine In addition to the grants to strengthen geriatrics training at individual academic health centers, in July of 2004 the Foundation’s trustees awarded four grants totaling $12 million to train academic health centers’ faculty in geriatrics. Under the grants, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, New York’s Mount Sinai Medical School and the University of California, Los Angeles will form the Donald W. Reynolds Consortium to Strengthen Faculty Expertise in Geriatrics in U.S. Academic Health Centers. The grants will be managed by Harvey Cohen, MD, Samuel Durso, MD, Rosanne Leipzig, MD, PhD, and David Reuben, MD, respectively. Related information on the Donald W. Reynolds Consortium: Duke University – http://careinaging.duke.edu/facultydevelopment Mount Sinai Medical School – www.mssm.edu/geriatrics/education University of California, Los Angeles – www.geronet.ucla.edu/centers/reynolds Each of the four Consortium members will receive a grant of $3 million over six years. In turn, the four Consortium members will: provide fellowships to train clinician educators in geriatrics over six years and continue the training of their own junior faculty members, with a goal of placing as many as possible as faculty in other institutions; offer one-week mini-fellowships and courses to strengthen the knowledge of geriatrics of faculty members who teach medical students and residents in other institutions throughout the United States; and provide on-site consultation to other academic health centers aimed at strengthening their geriatrics training. Most recently, the Foundation completed a cycle of proposal selection for a third and final cohort of geriatric training grants. Forty-eight academic health centers applied for grants in response to a call for proposals from the Foundation in March 2005. With the assistance of a panel of geriatrics experts, 10 were chosen. The institutions selected and the grant amounts, totaling almost $20 million, are as follows: Brown University, Providence, RI, $2,000,000 Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, $1,999,310 Harvard University, Boston, MA, $2,000,000 Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, $1,999,947 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, $1,975,236 University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, $2,000,000 University of Kansas, Kansas City, KS, $2,000,000 University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, $2,000,000 Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, $1,999,844 Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY, $1,997,826 A broad range of training activities will be supported under the grants. At the University of Utah, for example, a major focus is on innovative training for practicing primary care physicians that incorporates development of a project to improve the quality of the care they offer in their practice. Vanderbilt University will use innovations in state-of-the-art informatics systems to deliver and reinforce geriatrics content to reach virtually 100 percent of its students, medical and surgical residents and faculty. At the University of California, San Francisco, hospitalists – the most frequent and influential teachers of medical students and residents in inpatient settings – and other faculty will benefit from faculty development in geriatrics in order to improve the geriatrics training of its learners. Cohort #1 - Description of Geriatrics Training Grants Approved in April 2001 Cohort #2 - Description of Geriatrics Training Grants Approved in July 2003 Cohort #3 - Description of Geriatrics Training Grants Approved in June 2006 GERIATRICS TRAINING ADVISORY PANEL Marie A. Bernard, MD Professor and Chairman Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatric Medicine Oklahoma University College of Medicine John R. Burton, MD Mason F. Lord Professor of Medicine Director, Johns Hopkins Geriatric Education Center Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Harvey J. Cohen, MD Director, Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development Duke University Medical Center William J. Hall, MD Paul Fine, MD Professor of Medicine Director, Division of Geriatrics University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry Rosanne M. Leipzig, MD, PhD Vice Chair for Education Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development Mount Sinai Medical Center David B. Reuben, MD Professor of Medicine; Chief, Division of Geriatrics and Medicine; and Director, Multicampus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine Updated: January 31, 2007