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Geriatrics at The University of Connecticut School Of Medicine and Affiliated Hospitals
The University of Connecticut Center on Aging was established in 1986 with a substantial endowment from the Travelers Companies. Within two years, every health care institution in Greater Hartford had affiliated with the Center on Aging for education and research activities related to aging. A fellowship program to train physicians for academic careers in aging was established, and rapidly rose to the nation's "top ten."
The Center on Aging has grown rapidly: full-time faculty at the School of Medicine and affiliated sites has expanded to 37. Numerous facilities (hospitals, outpatient clinics, community-based long term care sites) are now closely affiliated with the Center on Aging in educational, research, and clinical activities. A second endowment by The Travelers Companies established the Travelers Research Institute on Health Promotion and Aging; the research center focuses on interventions to keep older adults robust and independent.
In 1996, the Center on Aging was awarded an NIH-funded Claude Pepper Older Americans Independence Center to conduct research and research training to prevent frailty in older persons. Center on Aging faculty pursue various health services, clinical, education and laboratory research and policy projects: osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s dementia, falls, hip fractures, home-based services and education, generalist physician education, end-of-life care, and alternative and complementary medicine.
Sixty-three physicians and six dentists have been trained for teaching, research, and administrative careers in aging in the Geriatrics Fellowship Program; 20 have joined the faculty. Others have joined leading geriatric programs nationwide.
The Division of Geriatrics, sponsored by the UCA, is an important component of the Medical School's Department of Medicine. More than 25 faculty from other clinical and basic science departments at the University of Connecticut Health Center participate in clinical, teaching or research programs on aging through the Center on Aging.
Center on Aging faculty are sought regionally and nationally to consult on matters related to aging research, policy and education. Total external funding exceeds $25 million. Over a relatively short life span, the Center on Aging has become a well-established national leader in clinical care of older persons.
The Center on Aging Geriatrics Fellowship
The fellowship has been accredited continuously as a joint internal medicine-family medicine program by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education since the first round of review in 1988. The fellowship was recently reaccredited, with commendation, in 2004. Family physicians as well as internists are encouraged to apply. The Associate Director is a family physician graduate of the program, and one slot is reserved annually for family physicians.
Goals
The goal of the University of Connecticut Geriatrics Fellowship is to produce new leaders in geriatric medicine who will teach excellent care of older persons and/or conduct aging-related research at medical schools, teaching hospitals, academic nursing homes, and other sites serving elderly individuals. Most graduates will have a teaching, research, or administrative career emphasis.
Graduates of the University of Connecticut Geriatrics Fellowship program will be able to demonstrate knowledge of:
1) Expert clinical care of ill older persons over a continuum of care including acute hospital, office, institutional long term care, geropsychiatry, home care and rehabilitation.
2) Teaching and curriculum development in all settings relevant to geriatric care
3) Aging research in basic, clinical, epidemiologic or health policy investigations.
4) Health policy and the health care delivery systems relevant to the elderly, and intimate understanding of administrative issues in geriatrics program development.
For information about applications and the programs of the University of Connecticut
Center on Aging, direct inquiries to:
Gail M. Sullivan, M.D., M.P.H.
Fellowship Director
Associate Professor of Medicine
University of Connecticut
School of Medicine
University of Connecticut
Center on Aging
Farmington CT 06030-5215
Tel: (860) 679-3958
Fax: (860) 679-1307
or e-mail:
Schwartz@nso1.uchc.edu
Helen-Mary Schwartz
Fellowship Coordinator
Eligibility
Most physician applicants will have completed three post-graduate years of training in internal medicine or family medicine, but those board eligible in neurology, rehabilitation medicine or psychiatry will be considered. All fellows will be appointed to the Center on Aging, which is responsible for coordinating, enhancing and increasing educational and investigative activities related to aging at the University. University appointment for fellows is made in the appropriate department at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.
Applicants need to have passed USMLE part III prior to initiation of fellowship.
