Geriatric Fellowship

The Challenge

Over the last few decades, improvements in medical care and disease prevention have vastly increased life expectancy. By 2030, older adults will total 20% of the U.S. population and those over age 85 will number 9.6 million. With age comes increased risk of disease and disability, including the occurrence of common geriatric syndromes such as falls, dementia, depression, and malnutrition. In addition, at least 80% of older Americans have at least one chronic condition and 50% have two or more chronic conditions. Are you ready to accept the challenge of caring for older adults? YES

The Specialty

Geriatric medicine involves not only treating acute problems, but also understanding normal physiologic changes of aging, managing overlapping chronic conditions, and recognizing geriatric syndromes. It focuses on care of the whole patient, not just his or her symptoms. It is patient care at its most basic, yet most complex and fulfilling. A 2002 survey published in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that geriatricians report the highest job satisfaction of any specialty (Leigh JP, Kravitz RL, Schembri M, et al. Physician career satisfaction across specialties. Arch Intern Med . 2002;162:1577-1584) . Are you ready to join the specialty with the most job satisfaction? YES

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The Geriatric Fellowship: Meeting The Challenge

The need for geriatric academicians in the osteopathic profession is profound; by 2030, the aging population is expected to reach 71.5 million. Training programs like the NJISA’s are vital to the expansion of faculty and primary care clinicians in geriatric medicine, dentistry, and psychiatry.

The growth of the elderly population has raced beyond the training of health care professionals with geriatrics expertise. By 2005, there were only 3.6 certified geriatricians per 10,000 geriatric patients and the Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs predicts a continued reduction in certified geriatricians in the U.S. in the coming years. On a national level, there are only 6 departments of geriatrics. Medical schools across the country report a dearth of geriatric faculty. Only about 500 (one-half of 1% of 100,000) medical educators in the U.S. are in geriatrics, representing the largest training gap in any field. A similar deficit hinders geriatric psychiatry. In addition, clinical training in geriatric dentistry has not kept pace with population growth, either, leaving dental graduates feeling unprepared. Although there are a dozen federally-funded geriatric dentistry fellowships in the U.S., they are hampered by under-enrollment. UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine’s geriatrics program continues working to overcome these deficits.

Why UMDNJ-SOM?

Why UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine?

Since its inception, the geriatrics program at the NJISA – patient care, medical student and other health professional education, fellow training, community programs, faculty development – has been a leader in geriatric education. U.S. World & News Report consistently ranks UMDNJ-SOM in the Top 20 geriatric programs in the country.

In the late 1980s, UMDNJ-SOM began developing a Center for Excellence in geriatrics. The program was called the Center for Aging. The UMDNJ-SOM geriatrics program spanned patient care, healthcare professional training, medical student education and fellowship training. The first osteopathic fellowship Basic Standards for Subspecialty Training in Geriatrics came out of the work done by the Center for Aging team.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) offers funding for interdisciplinary geriatrics training. The Center for Aging successfully applied for this award and, in 1989, the federally-funded UMDNJ-SOM geriatric fellowship accepted its first fellows (two physicians and a dentist). Those first fellows joined one of the few geriatric fellowships in the country and the only osteopathic geriatric program. Today, the variety of patient care, clinical, and educational programs that the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging offers build on the tradition of excellence that was established then. The Osteopathic Postdoctoral Training Institute (UMDNJ-SOM OPTI), through the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging and New Jersey Dental School, offers a variety of post-doctoral training fellowships in geriatrics. The NJISA has continued to lead the way in training of fellows; its educators were key participants in developing the osteopathic basic standards for geriatric psychiatry fellowship and, in 2007, became the first accredited osteopathic geriatric psychiatry program in the U.S.

As one of only 6 geriatric fellowships in the osteopathic profession, UMDNJ-SOM has had a vital role in preparing geriatric faculty to assume leadership roles in the 25 Osteopathic medical schools. Currently, there are only 17 academic geriatricians who are Doctors of Osteopathy serving as faculty in osteopathic medical schools. With the June 30, 2007 graduation of the program’s fellows, our program has trained 58% (10 out of 17) of the current geriatric academicians. The geriatric dentistry fellowship program, the only such geriatric dental training program in New Jersey, led to the creation of a dental center on the UMDNJ-SOM campus in southern New Jersey. It augments delivery of dental services to minority and underserved populations and led to the establishment of a Department of Dental Medicine within School of Osteopathic Medicine.

Geriatric Internal Medicine
Geriatric Family Medicine
Geriatric Psychiatry
Geriatric Dentistry

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Why NJ?

A program's strengths should be the primary reason for choosing a fellowship. But there are other things to consider, too!

In addition to the nationally renowned geriatric education experiences available here, the NJISA is centrally located in Stratford, New Jersey . It is just thirty minutes to Philadelphia, PA and an hour to Atlantic City, NJ and other Jersey shore points. New York City (100 miles north), Baltimore (95 miles south), and Washington, DC (130 miles south) are easily accessible by car and rail.

Culture, entertainment, history: all in easy reach!

To find out Why NJ, click here.

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