Email this pageGeriatric Medicine Fellowship
Program Director: Thomas Caprio, M.D.
Program Description
Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Clinical Training Program
Thomas Caprio, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Division of Geriatrics & Aging
Program Director,
Geriatric Medicine Fellowship
At the end of twelve months of sub-specialty training the geriatric medicine, fellows are eligible for subspecialty board certification in geriatric medicine. They are fully prepared to provide primary and consultative health care to geriatric patients in hospital, nursing home, and office settings. The fellows' training includes a multi-dimensional biopsychosocial view of assessment, treatment, and management of health problems in older adults. Fellows will gain skills through a combination of supervised clinical experiences and formal didactic conferences. In addition to the requisite body of knowledge, each fellow develops leadership and teaching skills, professional attitudes, and practical experiences required of a geriatrician. Additional years of research-based training are available to qualified fellows through the research training program in geriatrics and gerontology.
Wecome Letter
Welcome to the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program at the University of Rochester. We offer a one-year ACGME accredited training program to board-eligible internists and family practitioners. Additional years of research-based training are available to qualified applicants via the T32 Research Training Grant. The fellowship is designed to fully meet the requirements of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and to abide by the guidelines of the American Geriatrics Society. The fellowship is an integrated experience based at several sites: Monroe Community Hospital (teaching nursing home), Highland Hospital - Acute, Independent Living for Seniors (a PACE replication site), and the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Canandaigua and Rochester, New York.
The experience in year one is clinically focused and includes longitudinal care and neurology consultation in a nursing home setting, primary care of a cohort of frail, older adults, and comprehensive geriatric assessment at the consultative clinic at Monroe Community Hospital. Block rotations in year one include: geriatric psychiatry, rehabilitation, acute inpatient care, palliative care, Independent Living for Seniors, and home care. Fellows also participate in the educational activities of the Division including: geriatric journal club, geriatric medicine grand rounds, geriatric fellows' conference and as well as participating in the education of internal medicine housestaff and medical students.
It is our goal that by the end of twelve months of sub-specialty training the geriatric medicine fellow is fully prepared to provide primary and consultative health care to geriatric patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Each fellow will have at his/her command a broad body of knowledge that includes an integrative understanding of normal aging and disease models, training in biological and psychosocial aspects of normal and abnormal aging, the impact of acute and chronic physical illnesses, and the biological and psychosocial aspects of the pathology of geriatric syndromes beginning in or continuing into older age.
It is also our goal that the fellows' training includes a multi-dimensional biopsychosocial view of assessment, treatment, and management of geriatric patients in all settings. Fellows will gain skills through a combination of supervised clinical experiences and formal didactic conferences. In addition to the requisite body of knowledge, each fellow develops leadership and interpersonal skills, professional attitudes, and practical experiences required of a geriatrician. Specific learning objectives are provided for each clinical rotation in which the fellow participates.
Thomas Caprio, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Division of Geriatrics & Aging
Program Director, Geriatric Medicine Fellowship
Training and Rotation Sites
Monroe Community Hospital
MCH is a 566-bed residential health care facility providing quality long-term care to individuals with complex or chronic health conditions.
- Geriatric Assessment Clinic - The program aims to maintain frail older adults in the community at the most independent level as possible through an interdisciplinary approach of comprehensive geriatric assessment. The clinic features a Geriatric Health Care Team that thoroughly evaluates the health and functional ability of older persons by examination, and interviewing both patient and family, in addition to gathering information from the primary care physician.
- Long-Term Care - Each fellow is assigned a panel of long-term care patients, at Monroe Community Hospital, which they will follow longitudinally with an attending physician during their tenure as a fellow. Other experiences include participation on a closed wandering/behavior unit at MCH and a respiratory unit for ventilator-dependent patients at an affiliated facility.
- Neurology - Fellows participate in inpatient neurologic consultation at Monroe Community Hospital and outpatient consultation and neurology clinic at Monroe Community Hospital. They are involved in didactic teaching rounds with an attending geriatric neurologist.
- Psychiatry - The Psychiatry Department at Monroe Community Hospital is world-renowned for its groundbreaking work in cognitive disorders and dementias and continues to actively participate in innovative clinical trials. Fellows participate in a two month rotation of inpatient psychiatric consultation on long-term care patients at Monroe Community Hospital as well as outpatient evaluation in the neurology and psychiatry clinic. (Their involvement is also encouraged in the ongoing research and clinical trials in Alzheimer's Disease and other dementing disorders and behavioral disturbances.)
- Rehabilitation - MCH is home to one of the most experienced short-term rehabilitation programs in the region providing individualized care to people with disabling conditions as result of an illness or injury. Geriatric Medicine fellows participate in a three month rotation on a comprehensive, interdisciplinary teaching service and are responsible as team members for the primary care of the patients. Fellows interact with specialists in medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language pathology, recreation therapy, social work, clergy, audiology, nursing, and nutrition. The treatment team is committed to restoring each patient's physical and cognitive skills, enabling him or her to be as self-reliant and independent as possible.
Highland Hospital
Acute Care for Elders (ACE) unit. Highland Hospital is a community hospital that has a long tradition of outstanding care with research and education in the biopsychosocial model and physician-patient communication. It is quickly becoming the center for the care of the hospitalized elderly with its innovative ACE Unit. Fellows have an opportunity to both learn and teach during this required rotation. Fellows also participate in peri-operative geriatric consultation and comanagement on the Geriatric Fracture Center and Palliative Care Consultation.
Independent Living for Seniors (ILS)
A PACE (Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly) replication site. A PACE site provides an interdisciplinary, adult daycare centered comprehensive plan of care to nursing home eligible individuals in their own home. Most disciplines including physicians, nurse practitioners, skilled nursing, rehabilitative services, social work, pastoral care, dental care, eye care, podiatry, dietary, and aide services are offered at the three day center locations.
Veterans Administration Medical Center Canandaigua, NY
The Department of Veterans Affairs has a long history of supporting geriatrics educational and research activities. The Canandaigua VA Medical Center is a 300-bed facility affiliated with the University of Rochester which provides extended care for veterans with physical and mental disabilities. The 150-bed nursing home program includes post-acute care, medical nursing home care and a 30-bed dementia unit. The Canandaigua facility and an affiliated Rochester Clinic located proximal to the University and Monroe Community Hospital, also offer a variety of outpatient services. Fellows rotating through the VA have opportunities for involvement in the outpatient clinic services, palliative care services and the Home Based Primary Care programs.
The fellowship also utilizes several other sites as part of the training including Visiting Nurse Services for the home care rotation and palliative care rotation; Lifetime Health and Unity Geriatrics Associates for primary care ambulatory clinic experiences and Strong Health Geriatrics Group, Highlands at Brighton and Highlands Living Center for additional long-term care and medical directorship exposure.
Current Fellows
Geriatric Medicine Fellows 2009 -2010
Roksolana Kuchma, M.D.
Dr. Kuchma completed her medical education at Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Sciences in Poznan, Poland. She then joined the Family Medicine residency program at the University of Rochester/Highland Hospital and was appointed Chief Resident for the 2008-2009 academic year. She has received several awards including those for resident teaching and excellence in women’s health care. Dr. Kuchma is currently enrolled in a part-time Master’s in Business Administration program at the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester.
Kristen Thornton, M.D.
Dr. Thornton completed her medical training at Dartmouth Medical School and internship training at the Mayo Clinic. She then joined the Family Medicine residency program at the University of Rochester/Highland Hospital and was appointed as Chief Resident for 2008-2009. She has presented at multiple national meetings and has been the recipient of many honors including the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship in Palliative Care during medical school.
Adnan Haider, M.B.B.S.
Dr. Haider completed his medical training at Dow Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan. He then completed his Internal Medicine Residency at the Charleston Area Medical Center in Charleston, West Virginia. He has extensive national experience in endocrine and sleep disorders research. Dr. Haider has published several articles relating to sleep apnea and he has presented at multiple national meetings.
Ranka Bulajic, M.D.
Dr. Bulajic began medical school at the University of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina shortly before civil war interrupted her training and she moved to Serbia and eventually to Toronto, Canada where she became a study coordinator for Alzheimer’s Disease clinical trials. Dr. Bulajic then returned to Serbia and completed her medical education at the University of Kragujevac. She completed an internship in general medicine in Bosnia and Herzegovina before coming to the U.S. for the Internal Medicine Residency program at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, New York.
Applying to the Program
The application (in Word format) for a Fellowship with the Division of Geriatrics can be viewed on-screen and can be printed (if a printer is attached). Typed applications are preferred or hand-written legibly. Applications are also accepted through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS).
Click here to download the application
If you are unable to print the application, please submit a request either in writing to:
Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program Coordinator
University of Rochester
Division of Geriatrics & Aging
435 East Henrietta Road
Rochester, NY 14620
or fax (585-760-6376)
Application submission dates
Fellowship commencing:
July 2009 - ALL POSITIONS FILLED NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
July 2010 - Due November 30, 2009
Applications submitted past the due date will be considered on an individual basis.
Links of Interest
American Medical Directors Association (AMDA)
The American Geriatrics Society (AGS)
State Society on Aging of New York (SSANY)
VA Healthcare Network Upstate NY - VISN 2
Get In Touch
Division of Geriatrics & Aging
Phone: 585.760.6352
Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program
Phone: 585.760.6353
Click Here to get more information
