Amelia Panico

Michael Stern, who attended medical school at Weill Cornell and trained in emergency medicine at Bellevue, is the first fellow named to the medical college's Geriatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship.

NEW YORK -- As more adults reach their 75th birthday, their acute and complex medical needs present a challenge beyond routine geriatric care. Anticipating a need for informed emergency treatment, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center has created the Geriatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship, the first program of its kind in New York City for physicians who have completed their residency training in emergency medicine.

Michael Stern, who attended medical school at Weill Cornell and trained in emergency medicine at Bellevue, has been named the program's first fellow.

Said Stern, who worked as an artist for 11 years before switching to medicine, "Firsthand experience has shown me that the vast majority of emergency department patients are geriatrics, and it's a demographic that is climbing astronomically. Thanks to improved medical knowledge and patient care, people are living longer, healthier lives. There's a real need for learning and teaching the special needs and issues presented by this population. This is the natural joining of emergency and geriatric medicine."

The fellowship will draw on the combined strengths of the hospital's Emergency Medicine Department, led by Neal Flomenbaum, emergency physician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell and professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC), and its geriatric program, led by Mark Lachs and Ron Adelman. Lachs is professor of medicine at WCMC and attending physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. He also is the Irene F. and I. Roy Psaty Distinguished Professor of Medicine. Adelman is associate professor of medicine at WCMC and associate attending physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell.

According to Flomenbaum, "Every day, fully functional and independent older patients present at our emergency department with an acute injury or illness. If we succeed in rapidly and accurately diagnosing and treating their problems, they will return home and resume their independent lives. Failing to do so, however, may mean the permanent loss of their independence."

Flomenbaum added that the fellowship program will help reinvent the house call for the 21st century. "For the first time, emergency medicine physicians will treat some patients where they live, alleviating the need for a difficult or impossible trip to the hospital," he said. "Emergency medicine physicians are uniquely qualified to bring care to these patients for conditions that may be difficult to treat, such as lacerations, wound care and other injuries."

As members of the faculty, the new geriatric emergency medicine fellows will teach at WCMC and, in partnership with NewYork-Presbyterian's own network of hospitals and emergency departments, will share their expertise with medical centers throughout the New York City area.