Aging and Community Health

The AMA's program on Aging and Community Health serves to enable physicians to prevent and postpone disease and disability and to maintain the well-being, independence, and mobility of an aging population.

Spotlight on achieving competences in the care of older adults

Read about our progress towards achieving physician proficiency in geriatric care:

Efforts underway to prepare physicians to care for growing elderly population
JAMA, Aug. 19, 2009 

A white paper promoting the implementation of the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) recommendation on the need for geriatric competencies can be viewed online.

May 2009 issue of Academic Medicine includes articles on"Aging America: Meeting the Needs of Older Americans and the Crisis of Geriatrics" describing the process of developing the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) geriatric comptencies for medical schools.

Geriatric competencies for medical schools
These twenty-six geriatric competencies were initiated by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to guide education standards to ensure that every geriatric patient is receiving appropriate care.

Under development currently are geriatric competencies at the residency level for family, internal and emergency medicine as well as general surgery.  For more information contact Joanne Schwartzberg, MD.

Progam goals and objectives
The goals and objectives of the AMA's Program on Aging and Community Health.

Reports and tools
New physician tools on self-management and geriatric medical education.

Older driver safety
Per mile driven, the fatality rate for drivers 85 years and older is nine times higher than the rate for drivers 25 to 69 years old.

Caregiver health
Caregiving can be stressful and may contribute to serious illness and depression.

Dementia
Dementia is a major public health problem with a profound impact on millions of patients and their families.