Roseanne Leipzig, MDThe day after I posted a blog about the importance of medical students receiving education in geriatrics, Rosanne Leipzig, MD, published an excellent op-ed in the New York Times on the same topic entitled “The Patients Doctors Don’t Know”. Dr. Leipzig, who leads the Foundation’s Center of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, is a long-time Foundation grantee and a national leader in geriatrics education working also with stakeholders such as the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and the American Board of Internal Medicine.

In her piece, Dr. Leipzig crystallizes our concerns about the current quality of care for older adults, through an all too common example of poor care. She also describes the progress that has been made to identify the required basic competencies for health professionals to do better. Finally, she makes some excellent public and educational policy recommendations to achieve that competence.

Please share Dr. Leipzig’s article widely with those who are interested in care of older people. Even more important, please share it with those who should be interested but aren’t yet. I believe that this piece can explain in a nutshell what we all mean when we talk about the urgent need to improve the quality of geriatric health care.

The Patients Doctors Don’t Know
By ROSANNE M. LEIPZIG
Published: July 1, 2009

AS they do every July, hospitals across America are welcoming new interns, fresh from medical school graduation. Given how much these trainees have yet to learn, common wisdom holds that it’s not a good time of year to get sick. This may be particularly true for older patients, because American medical schools require no training in geriatric medicine. . . . more

More information on the projects mentioned in the opinion piece can be accessed through the links below: