Section on Gerontology and Geriatrics

At the Wake Forest School of Medicine, Fellowship training in Geriatric is a 12-month clinical track that utilizes the substantial resources of the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation.  The Clinical Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program is currently approved to train four fellows per year.  Our program is primarily based in the Department of Internal Medicine, but we accept applications from both Internal Medicine and Family Medicine.

The Sticht Center, which opened in April 1997, is a state-of-the-art geriatric clinical and research center.  The Center combines the resources of the Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine of the Department of Internal Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, the program on Rehabilitation Medicine.  Multiple levels of geriatric care are represented within its continuum of services: acute care inpatient medicine (ACE Unit), inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, geriatric psychiatry, geriatric consultation clinic, geriatric primary care, and a house call program for frail older adults.  Also, at affiliated nursing homes every level of long-term care is represented including assisted living, and Medicare-certified, nursing-home based subacute care.

In the Geriatrics Fellowship Program, there are 15 clinical and research faculty members directly involved with training and more than 20 faculty members involved via interdepartmental research projects.

In 2008, Wake Forest was designated as a Hartford Center of Excellence in Geriatrics.  To encourage more trainees to pursue a career in geriatrics, we have implemented an Educational Debt Relief Program that will provide $10,000 applied to student loan debt upon board certification and additional incentives for fellows entering academic geriatrics.

“Under the leadership of a superb faculty, the Fellowship training in geriatrics has been enriched to become by far one of the strongest programs in country.”
Jeff D. Williamson, MD, MHS  
Section Chief of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine

“Our fellowship offers a broad foundation of training preparing fellows to provide expert care for older adults, to understand the spectrum of research in aging, and to serve as future leaders in geriatric medicine.”
Hal H. Atkinson, MD   
Program Director, Clinical Fellowship in Geriatric Medicine