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New York, NY-- A serious disparity exists between the growing aging population and the number of health care providers being trained to meet the unique health care needs of older adults, according to a study contracted by the Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs (ADGAP) and published in the November 13 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, led by Gregg Warshaw, MD, an ADGAP member and Professor of Geriatric Medicine.

In 1991, the researchers point out, the Institute of Medicine recommended that medical school geriatrics programs be comprised of at least nine full-time faculty members. Nearly 12 years later, 71% of geriatrics programs surveyed had fewer than nine faculty, while 51% of reporting schools had less than six.

More than 60% of the program directors cited a lack of sufficient research faculty and trainees, poor reimbursement for clinical care, and a lack of institutional financial support as "significant" obstacles to program development.

Twenty percent of the U.S. population will be 65 years or older in 2030, up from 12.4% in 2000. Currently, there are only 5.5 geriatricians in the U.S. for every 10,000 people over the age of 75. The authors anticipate a 34% fall in the total number of certified geriatricians nationwide, from 9,256 in 1998 to less than 6,200 by 2004.

The key to alleviating the shortage, according to researchers, is for medical schools to lead the charge in giving geriatric medicine the attention it deserves, cultivating programs where there are none, improving existing ones, and recognizing their crucial role in training future doctors to care for an underserved and rapidly expanding population.

"The growth of geriatric medicine has been and will continue to be largely dependent on the successful establishment of academic geriatric medicine programs in U.S. allopathic and osteopathic medical schools," says John Burton, MD, President of ADGAP and Professor of Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

The study reported in JAMA is the result of a comprehensive ADGAP research program that began in 1999, the "Longitudinal Study of Training and Practice in Geriatric Medicine," and is subcontracted to researchers at the University of Cincinnati. The ADGAP research program will "establish benchmarks for the geriatrics field and enable measurement of the impact of current and future strategies for developing academic geriatric medicine."

The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, a national philanthropic organization headquartered in Las Vegas Nevada and founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it is named, funds the study. The Reynolds Foundation has recently approved a three-year grant extension to ADGAP to continue the Longitudinal Study by maintaining and expanding the data set initiated under the Foundation's 1999 grant.

The Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs (ADGAP) was founded in the early 1990s by a group of twenty leaders from the American Geriatrics Society (AGS). ADGAP is dedicated to providing support to education and research programs in geriatric medicine within U.S. medical schools, and to directors of academic geriatric programs in order to improve patient care and research. ADGAP is an integrated group within the AGS that works both independently and along side the society in pursuit of its mission.

Founded in 1942, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) is a nationwide, not-for-profit association of geriatrics health care professionals dedicated to improving the health, independence and quality of life of all older people. The society supports this mission in many ways through activities in: clinical practice; professional education on the clinical care of older people; research; public education and information; public policy efforts; and by collaborative relationships with other organizations.. For more information about AGS programs and initiatives, visit the AGS Web site at www.americangeriatrics.org.