Medical school accreditation requirements require educational opportunities in geriatrics. Twenty-six minimum graduating competencies in geriatrics have recently been identified for medical students. The authors describe how these competencies are being integrated into a new medical curriculum through coursework and community-based experiences.…

The education mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is to train health professionals to benefit VA and the United States. One approach for achieving that mission, along with VA's research and clinical missions, was the establishment of Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Centers (GRECCs) in 1975. These were developed at VA…

The virtual patient is a case-based computer program that combines textual information with multimedia elements such as audio, graphics, and animation. It is increasingly being utilized as a teaching modality by medical educators in various fields of instruction. The inherent complexity of older patients and the shortage of geriatrics educators…

Brown Medical School developed a comprehensive curriculum in which enriched aging content increased from 22 to 80 hours in preclerkship courses and was also added for clerkships, residencies, and nongeriatrician physicians. Innovative evaluation strategies are also described. Highlights include "treasure hunts" in the anatomy laboratory, a…

Aging Couple Across the Curriculum is a unique program designed around a couple who "age" a decade with each year of medical school. In these half-day sessions, students encounter the aging couple through a standardized patient experience. Interactive breakout sessions conducted by multidisciplinary professionals enhance student learning and…

This study assesses how effective classroom sessions are at teaching geriatric competencies to medical students. At Stony Brook Medical School, most geriatric competencies are taught in the Ambulatory Care Clerkship during small-group educational sessions. Clinical exposure to reinforce these specialized skills varies with preceptor assignment. A…

Medical graduates require positive attitudes toward older people with cognitive impairment, in addition to knowledge and skills in the diagnosis and management of dementia. The Student Training Project in Dementia (STriDE) project was conducted to ensure that these needs are met through curricula in Western Australian medical schools. Two medical…

The University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) General Education "Clusters" are innovations in student-centered undergraduate education focused on complex phenomena that require an interdisciplinary perspective. UCLA gerontology and geriatric faculty recognized the opportunity to introduce freshmen to the field of aging through this new…

The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine (UMMSM) has developed and implemented a competency-based undergraduate medical education (UME) curriculum that targets 61 learning objectives for three geriattic syndromes: dementia, falls, and delirium. This curriculum redesign changed the educational focus from what is taught to what is learned.…

Over the last 20 years, older people have served as teachers for students as part of the formal curriculum in geriatrics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. In recent years, we have supported a more in-depth, longitudinal experience that connects medical students with elders in the community. The program was initiated as a special…

This paper describes development, implementation, and evaluation strategies of a longitudinal geriatric curriculum, the Senior Mentor Program (SMP). The rationale for exposing undergraduate medical students to healthy, community-dwelling older adults is to use the relationship and activities as vehicles for improving knowledge of aging and…

The Student Senior Partner Program (SSPP) forms the core of the required medical student geriatrics curriculum at the University of California-Irvine School of Medicine (UCISOM). The program utilizes a longitudinal modular format that extends over the first three years of medical school. Instruction is presented in didactic, patient interactive,…

In this article we will focus on geriatric medical education in Israel and will review our experience in this field. A coordinated effort of the Ministry of Health and the Israeli Medical Association led to the establishment of a modern geriatric system and to the recognition of geriatrics as a medical specialty in the early 1980s. All four…

The Duke University School of Medicine has a unique curriculum in which students complete basic sciences in year 1 and clinical clerkships in year 2, making way for an entire year of independent study in year 3. Into this compact curriculum, education in geriatrics has been successfully introduced through focused exercises and activities…

At the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine, we developed a voluntary senior-mentor program, the Senior Teacher Educator Partnership (STEP), for first- and second-year medical students. Using qualitative research methods, we examined the impact of STEP on medical students' attitudes and then assessed the congruence of what is learned…