Podogeriatrics

Foot disorders in the geriatric population have a significant effect on society, the quality of life of the individual patients and ultimately the cost of health care. To respond to the special needs of the elderly population, the training of primary care providers must produce practitioners who understand the process of aging and possess the knowledge and skills needed for care of the foot problem in the older patients. To address this training need, as an Internal Medicine residency, we developed an innovative Podogeriatric program in partnership with a Podiatry residency. This cooperative interdisciplinary training program integrated Geriatrics teaching, public health, preventive and community medicine with Podiatry at a VA hospital. Both hospitals are affiliated with a medical school and Griffin trainees are enrolled in a combined IM/PM program that integrates the teaching of the Yale school of public health into their clinical training and leads to a dual board eligibility in Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine, and a Master of Public Health degree. As a result of this program, Internal Medicine residents learn podiatry skills under supervision of podiatry faculty during their geriatric rotation. We believe this training will ultimately improve the quality of care and services provided to the growing number of geriatric patients.