Geriatrics Fellowship News

Duke Department of Medicine and School of Medicine investigators successfully competed for a 5-year renewal of the highly prestigious National Institute on Aging P30, $6.5 million, Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, based in the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development.

The Department of Medicine is pleased to announce the recipients of the first annual Neil L. Spector Art of Medicine Award, which recognizes exemplary mentorship practices in clinical and translational research.

Older adults and geriatricians find benefits to telehealth.

Miriam Morey, PhD, professor of medicine (Geriatrics) has been awarded the Paul B. Magnuson Award, the VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Service's highest honor. It is given to recognize humanitarianism and dedication in service to Veterans.

Like many of us, Cathleen Colón-Emeric, MD, chief of the Division of Geriatrics, has older parents who live nearby. Here are some of her suggestions for navigating the new and urgent conversations and decisions facing many families, including her own.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Duke University $1.4 million over four years to train physician-scientists to address Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRDs). 

The Stimulating Access to Research in Residency (StARR) R38 was awarded to a team of Duke University School of Medicine faculty led by Anthony Viera, MD, MPH, chair and professor, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, and Heather Whitson, MD, MHS, associate professor of medicine (Geriatrics) and ophthalmology and director of the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development.

Community has always been central in the life of Kimberly S. Johnson, MD, associate professor of medicine (Geriatrics) and director of the Duke Center for Research to Advance Healthcare Equity—also known as the REACH Equity Center.

Dr. Johnson grew up in tiny Winstonville, Mississippi, just outside Mound Bayou, a town founded by former slaves in 1887. She was aware that barriers to her success existed in the larger world, yet inside her all-black community, surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, the sky was the limit.

“Probably more than anything else, I’m a product of my community,” she says.

Harvey Jay Cohen, MD, never planned to go into geriatrics. It wasn’t a word he heard in medical school in the 1960s. In fact, he hadn’t planned to go to medical school either. Once there, he certainly wasn’t planning to become a clinician--he just wanted to do research. Even after deciding to become a clinician-scientist, he chose hematology-oncology as his specialty. He never gave geriatrics a thought.

But life has a way of presenting opportunities, and Dr. Cohen has a way of saying yes.

As the director of a new center at Duke dedicated to interprofessional education and care, Mitch Heflin, MD, MHS, professor of medicine (Geriatrics), expects to draw on his experience as a geriatrician.

The School of Medicine has announced that Mitchell T. Heflin, MD, MHS, associate professor of medicine (Geriatrics), has been named associate dean for Interprofessional Education and Care and director of the new Center for Interprofessional Education and Care, effective July 1, 2019.