Geriatrics fellowship training and the role of geriatricians in older adult cancer care: A survey of geriatrics fellowship directors

ABSTRACT

The number of older adults with cancer is growing, necessitating more collaborative training in geriatric principles and cancer care. The authors administered a web-based survey to U.S. geriatrics program directors (PDs) addressing cancer-specific training and perspectives on optimal training content and roles for geriatricians in cancer care. Of 140 PDs contacted, 67 (48%) responded. Topics considered very important in training included cancer screening (79%) and cancer-related pain management (70%). Respondents strongly agreed that some of the geriatrician’s roles in cancer care included assessing functional status (64%) and assessing physical/cognitive function for goals of care (64%). About one half (54%) agreed that having a standardized geriatric oncology curriculum overall was important. The presence of a geriatric oncologist, requiring cancer-based rotations, being affiliated with a cancer center, or being internal versus family medicine-based did not affect this response. Despite this high level of support, cancer-related skills and knowledge warrant better definition and integration into current geriatrics training. This survey establishes potential areas for future educational collaborations between geriatrics and oncology training programs.

KEYWORDS:

• Cancer education
• geriatric fellowship
• geriatric oncology
• program directors
• training

Acknowledgments

We thank Erin Obrusniak and members of the American Geriatrics Society for facilitating the development and conduct of this study. We also thank Karen Klein in the Wake Forest Clinical and Translational Science Institute (which is supported by UL1 TR001420; Principal Investigator: King Li) for reviewing and editing the manuscript. An abstract of this study was accepted and presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Geriatrics Society on 15 May 2015.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest (disclosures table below). The authors affirm that this manuscript has not previously been published, nor has it simultaneously been submitted for review for publication at another journal.

Funding

This research was supported by the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource of the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University (P30 CA012197, Principal Investigator: Boris Pasche).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource of the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University (P30 CA012197, Principal Investigator: Boris Pasche).