Department of Geriatric Medicine

geriatric patient and doctor
Pictured: A Geriatric Medicine student and patient in the UH clinic at Kuakini Medical Center, JABSOM’s academic training partner of the Department of Geriatric Medicine.

The Department of Geriatric Medicine provides instruction, research, and community service activities in geriatric medicine for medical students, residents, fellows, and other healthcare workers. It has a nationally known, accredited post-residency geriatric fellowship program. In addition to an active educational program that serves fellows, internal medicine residents, and medical students, the program is also very productive in biomedical research.

Hawai‘i is an aging state with the longest life expectancy in the nation. The presence of a locus of expertise and experience in the care of geriatric patients and in research on geriatric diseases is an important component of the State’s healthcare community.

The fully accredited Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program is one of the four largest fellowship programs in the country. More than 80 geriatricians have graduated from the program since its inception, with almost half of them currently practicing in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Region. The fellowship accepts physicians who are graduates of either internal medicine or family practice residency programs.

The first year of fellowship training is designed to lead to eligibility for the certificate of added qualifications (CAQ) in geriatric medicine. Additional years are devoted to research, consultative medicine, medical education, medical administration, and concurrent advance degrees.

The department’s international collaborative research studies are well established and respected, tailored to the uniqueness of Hawaiʻi in location and population diversity. Some of their largest epidemiological studies include:

  • The Honolulu Heart Program, a long-term study of cardiovascular disease in a cohort of Japanese-American males, which is currently the nation’s largest health follow-up study of a minority group
  • The Honolulu-Asia Aging Study, with comparison studies of age-related problems and dementia
  • The Women’s Health Initiative, a headline-making clinical trial and observational study to address the effects of hormone replacement therapy and other factors on the
    overall health of post–menopausal women.

Our department contact information:

Telephone: (808) 523-8461

Address:
Kuakini Medical Center
Hale Pulama Mau, 9th Floor
347 N. Kuakini Street
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 96817

Department Website
Residency Program Website