GERIATRIC ACADEMIC PROGRAM AWARD

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We propose a Geriatric Academic Program whose objective is to assist junior faculty awardees in geriatics or psychogeriatrics in developing from recently graduated fellows to independent medical investigators during their gerontology and relevant fields drawn from several key institutions in the UCLA consortium (Harbor UCLA Medical Center, VA Medical Centers West Los Angeles and Sepulveda, the Jewish Homes for the Aging, UCLA Medical Center and the RAND Corporation's Health Sciences Program); (2) the vast research and clinical resources of these institutions; and (3) an interdisciplinary collaborative structure for mentoring the awardee's research program. We present a wide ranging plan for recruitment of junior faculty, including minorities and women as candidates for the eight slots available and a process and set of criteria for selection of the awardees. We have selected the first three awardees, to start on July 1, 1990. They are all Assistant Professors of Medicine/Geriatrics at UCLA. Mark H. Beers, M.D. based at the UCLA Medical Center is a pharmacoepidemiologist; his proposal is an intervention to improve prescribing in nursing homes. Steven C. Castle, M.D., based at VA Medical Center West Los Angeles, is an infectious disease expert; he will study in vitro measures of cell-mediated immunity as a function of age. S. Allison Mayer-Oakes, M.D., M.P.H., based at UCLA Medical Center, is a heath services researcher who will study a major intervention designed to improve preventive medical care of older persons. Didactic course-work will be required of each awarded but the predominant educational method will be hands-on research experience under close supervision by a principal mentor and a committee of other mentors. We have defined criteria for monitoring progress and an evaluation plan including a pre-program contract between principal mentor and awardee. The narrative describes the qualifications of the Program Director, the strength of basic-science and clinical research relevant to aging, methods for collaboration between researchers in a variety of disciplines, the clinical facilities available as a milieu for research and our past record and current programs in research and research training. The administrative structure for the GAP involves the UCLA Multicampus Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, a GAP Executive Committee and an external Advisory Committee.