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 Tribune reports.
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.