Reynolds Foundation Grant

In 2001, the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry was awarded a $1.9 million grant over four years from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation to address the training needs of physicians in geriatric care. The grant is led by three co-investigators: Dr. Robert McCann, Chief of Medicine at Highland Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine, Dr. Annette Medina-Walpole, Assistant Professor of Medicine, and Dr. Nancy Shafer Clark, Assistant Professor of Medicine. The grant¹s educational objectives target medical students, residents, and community physicians. In the context of the newly developed Double Helix Curriculum, this grant will help develop and perfect a comprehensive aging program for medical education.

Geriatric Academic Career Award

In September 1999, Dr. Annette Medina-Walpole, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester, received one of 15 Geriatric Academic Career Awards (GACA) from the Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Intended to support the development of newly trained geriatric physicians into first rate teachers of geriatrics, GACAs provide five years of support for academic career development. The awards require and allow the recipients to devote the bulk of their academic careers to teaching geriatrics to a wide range of health care professionals.

Center for Lifetime Wellness

The Center for Lifetime Wellness is a joint venture between Monroe Community Hospital and the University of Rochester. The mission of the Center is two-fold: (1) to provide resources that promote healthy lifestyle choices and well being for community-dwelling adults over the age of 50 throughout the Rochester region; and (2) to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of these initiatives on health status, quality of life, and medical care costs. Specifically, the Wellness Center demonstrates the feasibility of offering comprehensive preventive health services to its target population by integrating the expertise of a nationally recognized chronic care hospital, a major academic medical center, and a variety of community-based corporations and nonprofit organizations.

The Center consists of three program components. The Center has a state-of-the-art fitness facility designed to provide a comfortable atmosphere for individuals to be able to exervise at their own pace according to their own individualized fitness goals. Consistent with the Center's mission, one of the hallmark features of the fitness center is its focus on empowering and teaching older individuals to take control of their own health, as well as providing them with the tools they need to monitor their progress. Second, the Center for Lifetime Wellness, with its roots in the Rochester Area Pepper Center, offers assessment services in an effort to learn more about factors which contribute to successful aging. The third component of the Center is its educational services. The Center strives to provide their taget populations with access to information that will help members reach their personal wellness goals.

Hartford Center of Excellence

The John A. Hartford Foundation designated the University of Rochester as a Center of Excellence in 1998. The Center seeks to provide geriatric fellows and faculty with extensive research training and academic development within the broad discipline of the biology of aging and health services research. The Center takes advantage of an already large community of scholars in health services and on the basic sciences related to the biology of aging. The Hartford Foundation has supported several junior faculty members in career development since the Center's establishment.

Monroe County Health Department

The Monroe County Health Department has recently initiated a comprehensive biannual survey of its community health, including older adults - the Monroe County Health Report Card Project. The goal is to involve individuals, health care systems, business, and the public health community in a process to improve the health of Monroe County citizens. The "report card" includes key measurements describing the health status of older adults. The data provide a baseline to monitor the impact of changes in the health care environment upon older adults. The Health Report Card Project provides a unique opportunity to develop community based educational efforts for both professionals and the lay public, and to chart their outcomes. Several Division faculty serve on the Older Adult Report Card Steering Committee.

Department of Community and Preventive Medicine

The University of Rochester's Department of Community and Preventive Medicine has a long tradition of scholarship related to the fields of clinical epidemiology and public health. It has recently developed a specific curricular track in geriatric public health, under the stewardship of Dr. William Barker. This academic program and opportunities for research mentorship provide an unparalleled resource for the Division's geriatric fellows and junior faculty.

Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center

Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center (FLGEC) is one of 31 centers currently supported by the Bureau of Health Professions, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These centers are dedicated to strengthen the multidisciplinary training of health professionals working in the field of geriatrics. The Finger Lakes GEC is committed to develop a community-wide response to improve the public health of the region's older adults through the education of its health and allied health practitioners and faculty. Our target area is the 13+ county Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, anchored by the cities of Rochester and Ithaca. These counties include Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Cortland, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, Wayne, and Yates.

FLGEC is a consortium consisting of: University of Rochester (School of Medicine and Dentistry, Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, the School of Nursing, and the Center on Aging), Monroe Community Hospital (Center for Lifetime Wellness and the T.F. Williams Foundation), Catholic Family Center/Eldersource/LIFESPAN (a community agency consortium providing case management and other supportive services for older adults), Ithaca College (Gerontology Institute and Physical Therapy Program), Community Coalition for Long Term Care (CCLTC) (long-term care providers, payers, and consumers). Other institutional partners include: Monroe County Long Term Care Program/ACCESS, Monroe Community College, Roberts Wesleyan College, St. John Fisher College,and the Rochester Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.