In 1988, the Foundation initiated its first Centers of Excellence (CoE) program to address the critical shortage of geriatric faculty in U.S. medical schools. The program was reinstituted in 1997, and renewed in 1999, the purpose unchanged: to increase production of faculty knowledgeable in geriatrics and aging through support for institutions which combine robust scientific and clinical resources in geriatrics with a demonstrated capacity to attract excellent trainees. While each institution retains many of its fellows in its own geriatric faculty positions, there are clear signs that medical centers across the nation have attracted increasing numbers of CoE program alumni. Common activities across CoE sites under this grant include training stipends for research-intensive geriatric fellows and research and/or pilot project support for junior faculty, both within and outside of geriatrics. Other objectives, which vary across the sites, include the development of enhanced educational capacity for geriatric faculty whose careers emphasize clinical teaching, and the development of infrastructure to facilitate research activities of geriatric fellows and faculty. Additional funds to the University of Washington are directed at enhancing geriatric capacity of faculty who teach at remote locations under the WAMI program, which reaches Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.
For more information please contact: Jeffrey Halter.