Sanjay Asthana will be the director of the new Center of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Training
March 26, 2008

Written byToni Morrissey
 
MADISON—The John A. Hartford Foundation, one of the nation’s leading funders in aging and health, has designated the SMPH a “Center of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Training.” The school will receive a three-year, $450,000 grant and join 26 other leading schools including Harvard, UCLA, Yale, Johns Hopkins and Duke that have received this prestigious award.

The school will match the grant to provide a total of $900,000 in support.
Sanjay Asthana, MD, associate professor of medicine, head of the school’s geriatric and gerontology section and director of the new center of excellence, says the money will be used to provide research opportunities for junior physician faculty members and senior fellows with the goal of recruiting medical students and younger physicians-in-training to the field.

“It’s very tough to get research funding. That’s one of the major reasons why physicians don’t go into geriatrics,” notes Asthana. He says the research produced through this grant will be applied to patient care in areas including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, stroke and heart disease.

Grant funds will help ensure that SMPH doctors-in-training can better meet the needs of older patients. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans age 65 and older will double to 71 million by 2030. By that time, demographers predict a shortfall of 26,000 geriatricians across the country.

“The Hartford Foundation is pleased to expand its Centers of Excellence program in geriatrics and to support the aging-related research and training mission of the University of Wisconsin,” says Gavin W. Hougham, senior program officer at the foundation. “The university is poised to provide outstanding leadership in the state and region and most importantly expand the number of physician faculty prepared to train the next generation of geriatricians.”

Founded in 1929, the John A. Hartford Foundation is committed to healthcare training, research and service-system innovations that will ensure the well-being and vitality of older adults. Through its grantmaking, the foundation seeks specifically to enhance and expand the training of doctors, nurses, social workers and other health professionals who care for elders, and promote innovations in the integration and delivery of services for all older people.

The UW section of geriatrics and gerontology is one of the premier academic programs in the country. It is recognized internationally for various clinical and laboratory-based research programs in Alzheimer’s disease, osteoporosis, sleep disorders, falls and caloric restriction. These programs have attracted substantial research grants, currently exceeding $62 million from various federal and non-federal sources including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Hartford Foundation and the Helen Bader Foundation.

In addition to research, the section of geriatrics sponsors several widely-acclaimed training programs for physicians and allied healthcare professionals. Those programs provide state-of-the-art clinical care to thousands of elderly patients referred from across Wisconsin and the nation.