Leader in Medical Field to Address National Shortage of Geriatricians in Talk at Holy Cross

Lewis Lipsitz, a nationally recognized leader in geriatric medicine and research, will give a talk titled “Frontiers and Opportunities in the Field of Aging” on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. in Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The talk is free and open to the public.

Lipsitz will discuss career options in the field of gerontology. “Despite the enormous growth of the elderly population over the next few decades, medical care in the United States is ill prepared to meet its demands,” wrote Lipsitz in a Boston Globe op-ed in 2003. “There are approximately 9,000 certified geriatricians in the United States, a figure that represents a striking one percent of all physicians. According to the Journal of American Medical Association, we need 20,000 geriatricians now and 36,000 by the year 2030.”

Lipsitz has spent most of his career in geriatric medicine at Boston’s Hebrew SeniorLife, where he currently serves as vice president for academic medicine and co-director of the Institute for Aging Research, and holds the Irving & Edith Usen and Family Chair in Medical Research. He is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and he is also chief of the division of gerontology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

His research interests include falls, fainting, blood pressure regulation, cognitive dysfunction, and improving long-term care for the disabled elderly. He has published 120 original research papers, 24 review articles, and 27 textbook chapters, and he co-edited Quality Care in the Nursing Home (C.V. Mosby, 1997).

Lipsitz is a member of several professional societies including the Gerontological Society of America, American Geriatrics Society, the American Federation for Aging Research, and the American Physiological Society. He was chair-elect of the Gerontological Society of America’s Clinical Medicine Section in 2001.

A graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, Lipsitz earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He also holds a master’s degree from Harvard University. He completed his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in gerontology at the former Beth Israel Hospital and Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged.

The event is sponsored by Gerontology Studies; Premedical program; Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture; Career Planning; and Student Development.