Newswise — MOULTRIE – PCOM South Georgia announces its partnership with Emory University as part of its recently announced five-year $5 million cooperative agreement with the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
The goal of the program is to increase the geriatric workforce within the primary care network of physicians by educating healthcare professionals to care for the aging population of patients. This is the third time Emory has received funding from HRSA but is the first time PCOM South Georgia has joined as an academic partner. The funding will support Georgia Gear (Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program), operated through the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.
“Our role is to help educate student physicians in the field of geriatrics and encourage them to consider specializing in this field,” said Marla Golden, DO ‘88, dean of the osteopathic medicine program at PCOM South Georgia. “Rural Georgia faces a shortage of physicians across the board. We’re already trying to meet that need.
Geriatrics is a field with a critical need, and that need is only going to grow as the population ages.” According to the U.S.
Census Bureau, by 2034 the number of adults age 65 and older will be greater than the number of children for the first time in U.S. history.
By 2030, more than 20 percent of Georgia’s population will be 60 or older, which is an increase of nearly 34 percent over 2012. Some s.