New Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology at RowanSOM

Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine has become just the 13th medical school in the United States – and the first in New Jersey – to establish a distinct department of Geriatrics and Gerontology. At an event on the Stratford campus on September 30, nearly 200 people joined Rowan faculty and staff to celebrate the new department and the selection of Dr. Anita Chopra as the William G. Rohrer Endowed Chair in Geriatrics.

A longtime leader in the field of geriatrics, RowanSOM has been selected 13 times by US News & World Report as one of America’s best schools for geriatric medical education. Geriatrics began at RowanSOM as a small subsection in the Department of Medicine in 1983, grew to become the Center for Aging in 1989 and was designated a statewide institution and renamed the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging (NJISA) in 2005.

Over the course of those three decades, the NJISA and the medical school have set high standards for geriatric care, educating thousands of health care professionals about the unique needs of older adults and garnering more than $28.5 million in funding from government, foundation and other sources.

Despite those achievements, Dr. Chopra says, “I still get the feeling our work has just begun.”

She may be right. With the “silver tsunami” of the aging baby boomer generation, America is undergoing an unprecedented demographic shift as the generation that would never grow older begins reaching its retirement years. Today, and every day for the next 15 years, about 10,000 more Americans will turn 65. By the year, 2030, one out of every five people in the country will be at least that old.

In his remarks at the ceremony, Rowan University President Dr. Ali Houshmand summarized the achievements and the challenges that lie ahead for the Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology.

“We have been a leader in this field, and with the new department we will only continue to grow in that role,” he said. “This department will foster opportunities for collaborative research among different schools at Rowan and with other universities and organizations. In short, this department will foster improved health care and services for older adults and their families.”