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MUSC receives $2M to meet needs of elderly
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When the current first-year medical students finish residency training,
the number of South Carolina citizens 65 years and older will have
increased from the current 500,000 to about 750,000. To
help deal with a growing, aging population, MUSC has become one of 10
academic health centers selected to receive a grant from the Donald W.
Reynolds Foundation’s Aging and Quality of Life program. This
program trains medical students, residents and practicing
physicians in geriatrics. MUSC will receive $2 million to develop a
quality-focused program called Aging Q³, which will be an educational
and practice-based program to improve geriatrics competency for
resident physicians. The three Qs represent quality education, quality
care and quality of life.
“The wave of aging baby boomers will engulf South Carolina in the next
decade,” said Bill Moran, M.D., lead physician for the program, “and
the training of physicians takes seven or more years. Our internal
medicine physicians are trained in managing chronic illnesses such as
high blood pressure and diabetes, but they need more training in the
management of syndromes that are prevalent as people age, such as
falls, poly-pharmacy and dementia. This program provides quality care
for these and other areas in aging.”
The Aging and Quality of Life program was conceived by the foundation
in response to a growing consensus that physicians lack adequate
training to meet the increasing needs of the frail elderly patient.
Such patients typically suffer from multiple, interactive physical and
psychosocial conditions—both acute and chronic—that compromises their
capacity to function in daily life and lessens their independence.
The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation is a national philanthropic
organization founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it
is named. The foundation’s goal is to improve the quality of health
care for elderly people across America by preparing physicians to
address their special needs.
Nov. 28, 2008
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