The Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine was established in 1982 as the first Department of Geriatrics at an American medical school. In conjunction with our Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) program at the Bronx VAMC, we provide expert clinical care for the most frail and complex patients. We conduct clinical research in aging, with an emphasis on medical decision-making, ethics, palliative medicine, and neurobiology. We teach geriatrics medicine to medical students, house staff, attending physicians, and other health professionals.

Mount Sinai has made an institution-wide commitment to excellence in geriatrics and gerontology through a broad range of innovative and comprehensive programs in research, education, and clinical care. Rosanne M. Leipzig, M.D., Ph.D., a well-known geriatrics educator and the Department's Vice Chair for Education, has developed a solid educational infrastructure that fosters academic leadership in geriatrics and gerontological research for junior faculty and fellows. Since the Department’s inception, more than 80 fellows and 40 junior faculty have been mentored in geriatrics and aging research. The Department's Fellowship Program is currently one of the largest in the country.  Each year, it enrolls approximately 4-7 fellows in its two-year Geriatrics program and 2-3 fellows its one-year Palliative Care progam.

The Department provides a variety of clinical services: The Martha Stewart Center for Living, an ambulatory care center which opened in the fall of 2007 and has over 11,500 patient visits annually; an inpatient Mobile Acute Care for the Elderly (Mobile ACE) unit; a Geriatrics Consultation service; a recently expanded Geriatrics-Psychiatry program; and an inpatient Palliative Care Consultation service. The Department, with over 30 full-time faculty, is a national leader in each of these areas. Long-term care services are provided at the Jewish Home and Hospital, our affiliated 1,300-bed teaching nursing home and at the Bronx VAMC.

The Department also houses a number of special programs. The Division of Experimental Diabetes and Aging is the only program of its kind in the nation; its research agenda spans the spectrum of basic science and clinical research on the role of glycoxidative damage in diabetes. Other major programs include the Lillian and Benjamin Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Advanced Palliative Care, both headed by Diane Meier, M.D., Gaisman Professor of Geriatrics, Medicine and Medical Ethics.

Much of the Department's efforts are devoted to training and research within the broader community. In 2005 the Department received a grant from the Kornfeld Foundation to establish a National Palliative Care Research and Training Center. It is also the recipient of grants from the John A. Hartford Foundation and the D.W. Reynolds Foundation, designed to further geriatrics education and training at other medical institutions throughout the country. One of the largest projects begun through these grants has been the creation of the Portal of Geriatric Online Education, at www.pogoe.org, an online repository of geriatric learning materials.