| BGS
Newsletter Online |
| Ageing and Academic Geriatric Medicine Quo vadis? |
| Email your comments Click here to go straight to our online poll In 2002, Professor Stout described the challenges facing academic geriatric medicine in the UK. He described how the funding processes for research, the broad nature of the topic, the relative youth of the specialty, and the requirement for academic geriatricians also to be clinicians, all conspired to render academic geriatric medicine a small and vulnerable specialty. He made suggestions for actions the British Geriatrics Society could take in terms of communication and lobbying, developing a research strategy, improving education in the topic, supporting academics in job planning, and the formation of strategic alliances with organisations and bodies with similar goals. Below, we have published the views of several academics on the state and the future of academic geriatric medicine. The writers approach the subject from different perspectives, reflecting to some extent, their personal weltanschauung! We have the military commanders - “the system is broken, let’s fix it” (John Gladman and Graham Mulley); the resolute optimist - “the system is under strain, but the solution is already underway” (Tash Masud); the pragmatists at the coal face (Roger Jay, David Oliver) and, showing a touch of the comic genius, James Frith; the young Turk and educationalist (Adam Gordon), and the “blue sky thinker” who would have academic geriatrics triumph by the back door (Simon Conroy). What do you think? Having scanned the contributions below, we would invite readers to go to the BGS website and log on to our online poll. The views of “jobbing geriatricans” are particularly welcome. Academic Geriatric Medicine - it's broken. Let's fix it (John Gladman) The view from the "coalface" (Roger Jay) Academic Geriatric Medicine and Visiting Professorships - a new type of partnership (Tash Masud) I am the only academic in the village - changing the view of the poor man's choice (James Frith) Academic geriatrics is dead - long live ageing research (Simon Conroy)
BGS Newsletter, March 2009 |