Objective: This article reviews the current status and recent trends in the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) psychiatric subspecialties and discusses the implications of those trends as well as several key questions whose answers may well determine subspecialty viability. Methods: Data are presented on specialty and subspecialty…

Geriatric psychosocial problems are prevalent and significantly affect the physical health and overall well-being of older adults. Geriatrics fellows require psychosocial education, and yet to date, geriatrics fellowship programs have not developed a comprehensive geriatric psychosocial curriculum. Fellowship programs in the New York tristate area…

Previous research has been conducted regarding preferences of physicians for life-sustaining treatments for themselves, but there is a dearth of data on personal use of advance directives (ADs) by geriatricians specifically. Using a phone survey, we contacted all graduates of the geriatric fellowship program to assess their personal use of advance…

Electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) can be useful for evaluating and documenting mastery of competencies. We investigated geriatric medicine fellows' perceptions of an ePortfolio. We conducted surveys and focus groups followed by quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Our study revealed that fellows considered the ePortfolio acceptable and…

With the aging and diversifying of the elder population in the United States, there is a pressing need for an organized and effective curriculum in cultural competence. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires that the curriculum for Geriatric Medicine Fellowship training include cultural competency training.…

Shay, Simpson, and Biernat describe geriatric dentistry training that included mentorship and shared experiences with physician trainees. Cohen and Lyles describe a fellowship program in which physicians care for older patients in unique settings and conduct research projects. (SK)

Efforts to prepare faculty to teach students to work with culturally diverse populations of older adults included conferences on course content and instructional methods and minifellowships in ethnogeriatrics. Most faculty reported changing course content to include knowledge gained from the training. (SK)

A yearlong training program involved 77 faculty from multiple disciplines in improving aging-related knowledge and appreciation for other disciplines' treatment of the topic. Evaluation showed good results for passive cognitive learning, slightly less for active cognitive learning, and mixed for affective. Four regional geriatric education centers…

Interviews with 6 of 10 Veterans' Affairs programs offering postdoctoral fellowships in geropsychology indicated that only 30% included palliative care or hospice training, despite the fact that the veteran population is likely to have an increasing need for terminal illness care. (SK)

The University of Louisville's School of Dentistry, through student research fellowships, seeks to promote interest in geriatric dentistry by sponsoring gerontological research. In addition to increasing student interest, it provides an opportunity to work in the field in the summer, and research findings enrich the curriculum. (SK)

Despite the increasing public demand for enhanced care of older patients and those with life-threatening illness, health professionals have had limited formal education in geriatrics and palliative care. Furthermore, formal education in interdisciplinary team training is limited. In order to remedy this situation, proactive interventions are being…

A survey of 11 fellowship programs supported by the New York Metropolitan Area Geriatrics Society revealed a striking disparity in quality and unanimous interest in sharing resources. All programs were positive about conferences and grand rounds but concerned about the home care component, clinical research, and the time availability of their…

Performance objectives, core content, training experiences, and clinical exposure and program evaluations are described for geriatric fellows and house staff members in internal medicine, family practice, neurology, and psychiatry. A modified Delphi study was used. (Author/MLW)

A detailed analysis of geriatric education at the undergraduate, graduate, and fellowship levels is reported. Data on the type of training sites, educational activities, and clinical interaction at different levels of training are presented. The results suggest that there is a need for high-quality geriatric programs at all levels. (Author/MLW)

A survey of 58 second- and third-year medical school geriatric fellows found they perceived their research training as inadequate, because of insufficient time for research activities and inadequate exposure to research-qualified scientists. Results suggest a research-focused third fellowship year may be futile without more resources. (Author/MSE)