Geriatrics Recruitment Resources

at the University of Rochester School of Medicine

Program Overview

Fostering academic development during residency training has been a successful means of recruiting academicians in other specialties. Early publications and scholarly work during residency may lay the foundation for future academic investigation and publications. According to a cohort study of neurology residents (see Available Materials), publishing before and during residency training were both associated with continued scholarly activity after residency.

To recruit residents to academic careers, each first-year Internal Medicine resident at the University of Rochester is required to undertake a project to gain experience in medical scholarship. Geriatrics faculty participate in this program in order to interest Internal Medicine residents in careers in academic geriatrics.

Program Operations

Each first-year resident chooses a research mentor from among 80-plus faculty volunteers, and spends two weeks developing her or his chosen scholarly activity. This might include designing a research project to be carried out over the remainder of the residency, preparing a case report, or performing a critical topic review based on the medical literature. Additional research experience is offered as an elective option in the second and third year of residency training. Several geriatrician faculty participate as volunteer research mentors, including those with careers as both researchers and clinician-educators.

The list of mentors is organized by the Department of Medicine/Internal Medicine Residency program. Additional information is available to residents on the URMC Internal Medicine Residency website (see Available Materials).

Staffing Requirements

Over 80 volunteer faculty serve as mentors to the residents. Internal Medicine Residency Program Directors and administrative staff in the Department of Internal Medicine oversee the program.

Program Costs and Funding Sources

The costs involved include faculty time to mentor and assist the residents in development and oversight of the scholarly project. All time is volunteered. Administrative costs are assumed by the Department of Internal Medicine.

In addition, if a resident’s work is accepted for presentation at the American College of Physicians annual meeting, the travel expenses are covered by the Residency Program. If the resident’s work is accepted for presentation at a subspecialty society national meeting, the travel expenses are covered by the sponsoring Division.

Process and Outcomes Data

Four residents who have completed their scholarly project in geriatrics have been recruited to geriatrics fellowships and have then remained in the geriatrics division in academic positions.

Residents have completed the following projects:

• Literature review on Healthy Aging
• Community Outreach Project entitled “Culturally Sensitive Exercise and Health Education in Latin American Elders." This project instituted an exercise and education program in diabetes, physical activity, and diet for attendees of a Hispanic day program in Rochester.
• Review article on Pain in the Minority Older Adult, published in a peer-reviewed journal
• Research project entitled "Glycopyrrolate for Urinary Incontinence in the Cognitively Impaired Elderly Patient"

Implementation Lessons

• It is important to introduce geriatrics as a research field to the residency program early on in training and to encourage interested residents to choose aging- related research projects.
• The web-based system has been very effective; some participants use it even before they arrive to start their residency.

Available Materials

Tools/Resources

• Overview of research program

Website

• The Internal Medicine Residency Research homepage, containing information on the research areas and application process: www.urmc.rochester.edu/smd/gme/prospective/
  medicine/research_faculty/research_overview.cfm

Publication

• Dorsey, ER, Raphael, BA, Balcer, LJ, Galetta, SL
  Predictors of future publication record and academic rank in a cohort of neurology residents
  Neurology 2006;67:1335-1337

For More Information

Annette Medina-Walpole, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
University of Rochester Medical Center
Medical Director, The Living Center
The Highlands at Pittsford
500 Hahnemann Trail
Pittsford, NY 14534
(585) 389-0988, x262
annette_medinawalpole@urmc.rochester.edu

Download the program as a PDF file