Reynolds Foundation Awards $20 Million in Geriatrics
Training Grants to 10 Academic Health Centers

The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation awarded 10 US academic health centers nearly $20 million in grants to strengthen geriatrics training for physicians. The grants support comprehensive projects that train medical students, residents and practicing physicians to meet the unique healthcare needs of the growing population of older adults.

The awards are the fourth set of grants under the Foundation's Aging and Quality of Life Program. The Foundation awarded the first group of 10 grants, totaling roughly $20 million, in 2001. It awarded another 10 grants amounting to approximately $20 million in 2003, and again in 2006.

"The foundation's goal is to improve the quality of healthcare for elderly people across America by preparing physicians to address their special needs," Fred W. Smith, chair of the Foundation's board of trustees, said yesterday. "The trustees and I are proud of the work that the Foundation grantees have conducted thus far and look forward to the accomplishments of this new group of exciting projects."

Grant recipients develop projects, materials and strategies for improving training for students, residents, and clinicians in all specialties. Grantees also gather once a year to share their projects. Reynolds grantee materials ready for dissemination are posted to the Portal of Online Geriatrics Education, at www.POGOe.org, a free, online clearinghouse that offers access to high-quality training and related materials.

"The American Geriatrics Society again applauds the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation for its generous and critical support of programs that improve the quality of care older adults receive," said AGS President John B. Murphy, MD. "The innovative training projects that grant recipients have developed with the Foundation's support have already resulted in significant improvements in elder healthcare quality.

Forty-eight academic health centers applied for the latest round of Reynolds Aging and Quality of Life Program grants. The following 10 were chosen for grants of roughly $2 million each:

Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston
University of Alabama, Birmingham
University of California, Irvine
University of Massachusetts, Worcester
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Osteopathic Medicine
University of North Texas Health Science Center, Ft. Worth
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
University of Texas, Houston
University of Texas, Southwest Medical Center, Dallas
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC