Welcome from Program Director

Welcome to the University of Rochester’s Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program!

It is truly an exciting time to be pursuing a career in geriatrics and we hope you join us. We offer a one-year ACGME accredited training program to board-eligible internists and family practitioners. The fellowship program is designed to fully meet the requirements of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and to abide by the guidelines set forth by the American Geriatrics Society (AGS). 

Division of Geriatrics and Aging

Our Geriatrics Fellowship Program lives within The Division of Geriatrics & Aging, which is the academic home to geriatricians on the faculty at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and the School of Medicine and Dentistry (URSMD). The Division, under the Department of Medicine, is consistently ranked among the best geriatric medicine programs in the country, and embraces several core values. These include an emphasis on leadership training, interdepartmental collaboration, community integration, educational innovation and the melding of medical practice and research along the continuum of care. The division has had multiple faculty members awarded academic career awards, faculty recipients of senior teaching fellowships, and faculty who have been recognized as Dean’s Teaching Scholars for their work in academia and education. Interprofessional collaboration, most notably with nursing, psychiatry, psychology, dentistry, physical medicine/rehabilitation, neurology, and chiropractic care, has resulted in the division successfully competing for over $30 million in grant and research funding in the last decade. Partnerships with the Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center have resulted in the creation of educational programs that have extended across the State of New York and nationally, as well as helping to define new policy and research directions in aging. The division’s clinical activities, spanning the full breadth of the health care continuum, serve the community’s needs through innovative outpatient and inpatient programs.

Our Division is now uniquely positioned to make a major impact across the spectrum of aging research, geriatrics education and clinical care with the creation of the University of Rochester Aging Institute (URAI) in 2020.  The URAI is a University-wide initiative which integrates all existing aging-related strengths and expertise, spanning a myriad of departments, schools and research centers across campuses, including research, patient care, education and community outreach. Consistent with the medical center’s Strategic Plan, the URAI empowers patients to achieve healthful longevity by promoting vitality, health, independence, and engagement of all adults as they age through collaboration, discovery and innovation.

Thank you for considering the University of Rochester’s Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program. We hope to see you soon!

Lisa Vargish, M.D, M.S.
Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program Director