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Geriatric Training Gets Short Shrift

The demographics of an aging population present a pressing need for specialists in that field, yet only one of Florida's six public medical schools requires academic and clinical training in geriatrics in all four years of medical school, the Tampa Tribunereports.

Florida State University's medical school was founded in 2000 with a deliberate emphasis on geriatrics. Three schools limit geriatrics to a single course or brief clerkship, and two have no specific classes on the subject at all.

Part of the problem, medical school officials say, is that young doctors in training don't see geriatrics as an attractive specialty.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.