Geriatric Education Center (GEC)

Director: Christine S. Ritchie, MD, MSPH

Established: 1986

Mission and Demographics

The Geriatric Education Center (GEC) provides multidisciplinary geriatric training opportunities and outreach activities aimed toward improving the quality of life for the geriatric population. Although an independently established Center by the UAB Board of Trustees, the GEC serves as the educational arm of the UAB Center for Aging within which it is organizationally situated. Participants include physicians, social workers, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, psychologists, optometrists, occupational and physical therapists, dieticians, and other faculty, practitioners, and students. The Center currently has more than 190 appointed faculty representing 42 departments and 12 schools at UAB.

Center Activities

The Alabama Geriatric Education Center (Alabama GEC) focuses on improving health care quality for older adults by training health professionals in the following Institute of Medicine identified priority areas: advanced illness (e.g., organ failure, advanced cancer), frailty (e.g., falls, weight loss, mobility decline), care coordination (e.g., institutional and community based long term care), symptom management, medication management, ethnogeriatrics, and health literacy/self management. The Alabama GEC provides comprehensive interdisciplinary training to health professionals through: a) training and retraining of faculty and preceptors, b) development and dissemination of interdisciplinary curricula, c) provision of continuing education for health professionals, and d) enhancement of geriatric interdisciplinary clinical training opportunities for students. This is accomplished through partnerships among the disciplines of dentistry, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, psychology, and social work within the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), as well as through partnerships with health care training institutions and community organizations throughout the state.

Training

The Center’s training involves co-sponsoring Continuing Medical Education and Continuing Education Unit programs for health care professionals.

For additional information:

Director: Christine S. Ritchie, MD, MSPH

Email: critchie@uab.edu

Phone: 205-934-9261

Administrator: Peter Bosworth

Email: Bosworth@uab.edu

Phone: 205-934-9261

Web Site: www.uabgec.uab.edu

Approved by: Peter Bosworth, Center Administrator

Date: April 30, 2008

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