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The University of Utah School of Medicine has been awarded a $2 million grant to help prepare doctors and nurses to care for the nation's growing elderly population.
Mark Supiano, professor and chief of geriatrics and executive director of the U.'s Center on Aging, is principal investigator for the grant - Comprehensive Program to Strengthen Physicians' Training in Geriatrics - from the Las Vegas-based Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.
Supiano, who also directs the Department of Veterans Affairs Salt Lake City Health Care System's Geriatric, Research and Education Center, and 45 U. faculty and staff members plan to develop a curriculum that provides every U. medical school student training in geriatric medicine.
By the time they graduate, each student should have the clinical skills to evaluate their older patients' status and screen for geriatric conditions often missed in routine care. Some of the diseases that affect senior citizens are Alzheimer's Disease, osteoporosis, heart problems and arthritis.
Each student's clinical progress will be assessed and tracked by a Web-based computer program.
"We're going to document that students are competent in geriatric skills," Supiano said.
Geriatric medicine is not a required part of most U.S. medical schools' curricula.
The U. is one of 10 medical centers awarded a Reynolds Foundation grant, which provides $500,000 annually over four years.
"We will never be able to train enough geriatricians to meet the coming needs," Supiano says. "But we can teach new doctors, within the context of their own specialties, to competently treat older patients."
Faculty from numerous U. departments, schools and colleges are working in aging, including the colleges of Nursing, Health, Pharmacy, Social Work, Social and Behavioral Sciences and the School of Medicine.
People 65 and older are considered geriatric patients, but as the average life expectancy continues to increase, doctors are seeing more people above 85. While Utah is widely known for having the nation's youngest population, it ranks seventh for people age 85 and older.
"I have great confidence that the U. will implement this well," said Rob Ence, director of AARP Utah. "A lot of time elderly patients don't have the resources they need. Having these additional resources will provide better care."
Founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it is named, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation is a national philanthropic group that gives grants and gifts for medical research, health and human services programs, and educational, cultural and historical endeavors.