CELEBRATING THIRTY YEARS OF AGING
AND HEALTH 2012 ANNUAL REPORT
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INCREASE THE NUMBER OF GERIATRICIANS

1983

Hartford Geriatric Faculty Development Awards

1983-1987 At a time when the speciality of geriatrics was relatively new, the first grant in Aging and Health encouraged medical school faculty in internal medicine to pursue advanced training in geriatric medicine. With a $2.5 million grant, 29 faculty members from various internal medicine disciplines undertook a year-long training at the medical schools of Harvard, Mount Sinai, Johns Hopkins, and UCLA.

By 1986 it became apparent that this approach could not adequately meet the challenge of dramatically increasing the number of geriatricians. In 1988, the Foundation launched a more ambitious initiative aimed at recruiting faculty even earlier in their careers, the Academic Geriatrics Recruitment Initiative.

Many of the recipients of Hartford Geriatric Faculty Development Awards assumed leadership positions in academic geriatrics. David B. Reuben, MD, for example, became director of UCLA’s Multicampus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, its Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center and the Hartford UCLA Center of Excellence. Dr. Reuben became an influential leader in academic medicine, serving as Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

(Top) David Little, MD, received training in geriatrics as a recipient of a Hartford Geriatric Faculty Development Award. At that time, he was an attending physician at the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the Aged in Boston. Here, he and nurse Lisa Perry visit a resident of the Center.

When I finished medical school in 1977 I hadn’t ever heard the word geriatrics. There was no board certification in geriatrics. There were few teachers of geriatrics, little in the way of curriculum about geriatrics, and very little research was being done on aging and health.” David B. Reuben, MD
Chief of the Division of Geriatric Medicine Director
Hartford Center of Excellence
University of California, Los Angeles
David Reuben MD (Above and below) David Reuben, MD, a recipient of a Hartford Geriatric Faculty Development Award, became a leader in academic geriatrics. Over the years, he participated in several Hartford-funded programs, including the Geriatric Education Retreats, which provided immersion experiences in geriatrics for subspecialty leaders.

david reuben
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