Europe‐Wide Survey of Teaching in Geriatric Medicine

Abstract

By 2050, the European population of 720 million will include 187 million (one quarter) octogenarians. Although living longer is a true privilege, care for the graying population suffering from chronic and disabling diseases will raise enormous challenges to healthcare systems and geriatric education. Are European countries ready to cope with these challenges? An extensive 2006 survey of geriatric education in thirty‐one of 33 European countries testifies that geriatrics is a recognized medical specialty in 16 countries and a subspecialty in nine of them. Six European countries have an established chair of geriatric medicine in each of their medical schools. Undergraduate teaching activities are organized in 25 of the surveyed countries and postgraduate teaching in 22 countries under the leadership of geriatricians (n=16) or general internists (n=6). A comparison with data collected in the 1990s shows important progresses: the number of established chairs increased by 45%, the undergraduate and postgraduate teaching activities increased respectively by 23% and 19%. However, these changes are very heterogeneously organized from country to country and within each country. In most European countries, there remains a huge need for reinforcing and harmonizing geriatric teaching activities to prepare the next generation of medical doctors to address the projected increase in chronic and disabled older patients. Several different innovative strategies are proposed.

Geriatric patients in the ICU

“…The distribution of geriatric medicine is unequal, geriatric medicine is not a mandatory part of undergraduate medical school programs and the speciality of geriatric medicine is still not recognized in many countries. (23) Pharmacological therapy, in this context, is a specific challenge due to several issues. The evidence for many guidelines suggested therapies are less solid for elderly than for younger patients.…”

The development of a geriatric postgraduate education assessment instrument using a modified Delphi procedure

“…The format of geriatric medicine varies substantially between European countries and some countries have not yet established postgraduate training in the discipline [5,6]. A recent survey on postgraduate specialist training in Europe found 24 of the 31 countries had a recognised curriculum [7].…”

Undergraduate Teaching in Geriatrics and Pediatrics in Portuguese Medical Schools: An Observational Study

“…4,5 In a study conducted by Michel JP et al, 2008, regarding GT in 31 European countries, only six had an established chair of Geriatrics in all of their schools (Belgium, Finland, France, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) and eight of them had no chair of Geriatric Medicine at all (Austria, Greece, Estonia, Macedonia, Moldavia, Slovenia, Luxembourg, and Malta). Unfortunately Portugal did not answer to the survey.…”

“…Unfortunately Portugal did not answer to the survey. 3 In Portugal there is not a national Geriatrics curriculum, and there are not specific geriatric wards in hospitals, rehabilitation or long-term care facilities, which raises difficulties to the implementation of GT.…”