Our mission is to provide the highest level of health care to older adults, and to discover, translate and teach new knowledge through education and research. We aim to be an inclusive and vibrant academic community that sets the international standard for clinical care, education and scientific discovery focused on improving the health of older adults.
-
Clinical Services
We offer long-term and community care through a number of clinical services, including the Beacham Center’s primary care services, inpatient consultative services, individualized care program (PACE/Hopkins ElderPlus) and home-based medicine.
-
Education and Training
The division’s education and training programs offer mentoring and individualized instruction. Programs include summer training, clinical and research fellowships, and continuing education programs to prepare the next generation to better serve an aging society.
-
Research
Whether exploring the biology of healthy aging, studying the health services offered to adults or looking at a multidisciplinary approach that combines policy and medicine, the division’s researchers are pushing our level of knowledge and quality of service further.
Highlighted Research Video
Dr. Stephanie Nothelle recaps her research that aims to help keep patients with dementia and their families safely out of the acute care setting.
Learn more about Dr. Nothelle
Division History
Created in 1983, the Johns Hopkins Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology grew out of the Division of Chronic and Community Medicine begun in 1963 on the campus of Baltimore City Hospitals (which is now the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center). At that time, Mason F. Lord, MD, instituted a community outreach program and formal review for each patient in the existing nursing home and chronic hospital on the site with the goal of finding placements for the patients at community sites whenever possible.
His pioneering work on behalf of the institutionalized elderly continues to inspire the division as it evolves. While all of our directors have used Dr. Lord’s philosophy to guide their efforts, two other directors stand out for their contributions.
-
In 1998, John R. Burton, MD, became the division’s director, after serving as clinical director. Through his vision, the division continued to expand and grow its clinical, educational and research programs.Major clinical programs begun or developed under Dr. Burton's leadership include the Elder House Call Program, Hospital at Home, the Program for All-inclusive Care of the Elderly (PACE) and the Orthopedic-Geriatric Medicine Hip Fracture Service. The division honored his work by renaming the Johns Hopkins Care Center, built in 1991, as the John R. Burton Pavilion.
-
Under the leadership of Linda Fried, MD, MPH, who became director in 2002, the division's research programs took a major leap forward. She had already created the Center on Aging and Health (COAH), a multidisciplinary research group focusing on clinical and population-based research, on the Johns Hopkins Hospital campus in 1998. As director, she expanded COAH’s multidisciplinary research through a new Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, added a Center on Aging and Health on the Bayview campus that focused on health services and research on multi-morbidity, and created the Biology of Frailty program.Today, thanks to these exemplary leaders and others like them, the division's research now spans a broad spectrum, from the biology of aging to health policy, with a focus on facilitating the translation of research discoveries into applications that will directly improve the health of older adults.
Division Photos
