Education

Geriatrics Fellowship Program

The Department of Internal Medicine within Yale University's School of Medicine offers a three-year fellowship in Geriatric Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology. The goals of the fellowship are to provide interested physicians with a strong clinical base and skills in geriatric medicine, research skills in clinical epidemiology, and an intensive research experience under the mentorship of an experienced geriatric physician investigator. Unique strengths of the Yale program include the diversity of available clinical experiences and the depth of expertise in clinical epidemiology and geriatric syndromes available through the Geriatric Medicine Program, the Program on Aging/Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, and the Investigative Medicine Program.

The Integrated Model of Aging and Geriatric Education (IMAGE)

Under the directorship of Dr. Margaret Drickamer, funded by a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, the IMAGE Program was created to the didactics and process of geriatric care into clinical practice. Specifically, the goals are to:

1. Integrate learning about the process of aging, geriatric assessment and the model of multi-factorial, goal-based care into the preclinical and clinical years of the Medical School and into the residency programs,
2. Teach and assess the specific skills needed to perform competent geriatric care including; a) an understanding of the predisposing factors, precipitating causes and consequences of illness states, b) the assessment of cognition and function, c) the elicitation of patient goals and d) the development on an appropriate plan of care,
3. Help students and physicians to understand their implicit attitudes toward the elderly and to develop faculty role models to exemplify appropriate attitudes toward and approaches to caring for elderly patients.