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USC School of Medicine receives $200,000 grant for geriatric education study

September 22, 2005

USC School of Medicine receives $200,000 grant for geriatric education study

The University of South Carolina School of Medicine has received a $200,000 grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations to help medical schools throughout the United States enhance geriatric education for medical students.

The grant to Dr. G. Paul Eleazer and Dr. Thomas J. Stewart, faculty members at USC's School of Medicine, will go toward the study of senior mentor programs and could lead to recommendations on how medical schools can incorporate the best practices of these programs into their own curricula.

Senior mentor programs, established at about 12 medical schools in the 1990s, pair senior citizens in a community with medical students. Seniors have direct teaching and learning roles with medical students and play an integral part in the students' geriatric education.

The Senior Mentor Program at USC's School of Medicine is recognized nationally for its innovative approach to geriatric medical education. All USC School of Medicine students are assigned to a senior citizen or a senior couple in the first year of their education. The students follow their seniors' healthcare problems and needs over the four years they're at medical school.

"In many cases, the senior mentors become surrogate grandparents for our students," said Eleazer, director of the USC School of Medicine's Division of Geriatrics.

"The seniors love it because they believe that they are helping to train the nation's physicians not only to be competent but compassionate and caring as well. The students leave our medical school understanding the challenges and joys of caring for our aging population," he said.

"There is considerable potential for the expansion of the Senior Mentor Program concept within medical education," Eleazer said. "Some medical schools are considering expanding their senior mentor programs, while other medical schools are planning to adopt the concept. This grant will enable us to examine the best practices of senior mentor programs and make recommendations."

A steering committee comprising representatives of senior mentor programs from throughout the United States will be appointed to analyze the nation's programs and report on their findings by 2007.

"This award gives us the opportunity to have an impact on the second generation of senior mentor programs," Stewart said. "Our study will help us determine what aspects of the programs worked, the impact that these programs have had on the geriatrics knowledge and skill of medical students and the long-term implications for senior mentor programs."

Senior mentor programs were established as medical schools incorporated geriatric studies as part of their students' education. This growth was stimulated by grants from the Association of American Medical Colleges and the John A. Hartford Foundation to 40 medical schools, including the USC School of Medicine, to incorporate geriatrics as a core part of medical education.

The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, based in Jacksonville, Fla., were established through the generosity of the late American industrialist, Arthur Vining Davis, who became president of the Aluminum Company of America in 1910 and served as chairman of the board for many years.