The Department of General Internal Medicine and The Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology are working together to offer an exciting new combined residency in Geriatrics and Internal Medicine, or Geri / Med Program.

The combined Geri / Med Program is a four-year residency that was developed to prepare graduating primary care physicians for the challenges of practicing medicine in the 21st century. By 2010, the first “baby boomers” will become the first “senior boomers” turning 65 years of age. Currently, persons over 65 make up 12.5% of the population. By 2040, they will comprise 20% of the population, totaling 75 million.

Why Geri / Med?

As the population over the age of 65 increases, their medical needs continue to change as well. The average 75-year-old has three chronic medical problems and regularly uses five prescription medications, as well as over-the-counter drugs. With aging come changes in the way the body metabolizes, absorbs and clears those medications. Older people also have very atypical presentations for common illnesses.

These patients often require a different approach than patients with similar conditions who are younger. This program will help physicians distinguish the differences and improve primary care for older adults.

Benefits and Advantages

After completion of this four-year residency, a resident will be Board Eligible for both Internal Medicine as well as Geriatrics. This residency will utilize the electives of the Internal Medicine residency to focus on Geriatric content. We would encourage our graduates to complete the Certification for Added Qualifications (CAQ) in Geriatrics.

As a certified geriatrician, the Geri / Med resident will be qualified for a variety of positions involved in geriatrics including:

• geriatric assessment programs
• geriatric consultation programs
• specialty geriatric clinics
• subacute programs
• nursing homes
• home care programs
• retirement communities
• primary care clinicspalliative care programs.

Upon completion of the residency, the Geri / Med residents still have an option of pursuing other subspecialty fellowship training.

Curriculum