Making Room for More Physicians (continued)

New geriatrics division comes of age

By Darla Brown

The Division of Geriatric Medicine is an area of specialization whose time has come for the Department of Internal Medicine. With an aging Baby Boomer population and life expectancy rates increasing, thanks to modern medicine, geriatrics is a field about which more physicians and medical students are finding they need to gain more experience.

"Twenty percent of the U.S. population will be over 65 by 2020," says Bruce Kone, M.D., chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. "Training this generation of students and house staff is increasingly important — especially as there are pressures on hospitals to turn around patients quickly, which can really affect older patients."

The department, which was established Jan. 1, 2007, is initially comprised of Carmel Dyer, M.D., as the division director and Kathryn Agarwal, M.D., as assistant professor of medicine, who comes to the Medical School from the faculty of Harvard University and is a graduate of Baylor College of Medicine.

"We have two very accomplished faculty members in this division with a lot of leadership, and it is a big infusion to our department to have them both," Dr. Kone says.

Dr. Dyer received her medical degree cum laude from Baylor College of Medicine and completed her medical residency, chief residency, and geriatrics fellowship there as well. She has served on the Baylor faculty for 15 years and is a new addition to the Medical School. She has received numerous awards — last year, Houston Magazine named her as a "Top Doctor" for geriatrics, and in 2003, she was named Physician of the Year by the Harris County Hospital District. Dr. Dyer is the principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health grant on elder self-neglect and was a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging and the National Adult Protective Services Association.

"Dr. Dyer is a creative and productive clinical investigator in the general area of geriatrics, but more specifically in the area of elder abuse and neglect, where she is held in high national peer esteem," he says.

The division's mission is multifaceted.

"The mission of this division is to provide outstanding clinical care to older patients; enhance the geriatric medicine training of medical students, residents, and other professional trainees; and conduct clinical research to improve the lives of elder mistreatment victims and other vulnerable seniors," Dr. Dyer says.

Opportunities to learn about geriatric medicine principles will be available for medical students and residents, and Dr. Dyer plans to establish a geriatrics fellowship program.

"The goals of the new division include developing multiple geriatric medicine teaching services at Memorial Hermann and LBJ hospitals and enhancing the care of geriatric patients throughout both hospital systems," Dr. Dyer says. "Also, I want the division to serve as an elder mistreatment intervention center of excellence for the state of Texas."

This broader vision is one that Dr. Kone says he sees involving not only multiple departments at the Medical School but reaching beyond school walls.

"Carmel's main interests are programmatic – developing multi-agency programs, and I expect she will work across departments and divisions here. For instance, her work with elder abuse will integrate with the Department of Pediatrics' child abuse program, and the division will interface with the School of Nursing's geriatric program and with the School of Public Health's health policy programs. There are also opportunities to develop curriculum with the McGovern Health, Humanities and Human Spirit Program," Dr. Kone says.