Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program
Thank you for your interest in our Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program. Our program is a one-year fellowship that will train and educate physicians to take care of older adults in a myriad of clinical and academic settings. At the end of the program, clinicians will be eligible to sit for the exam for their Certificate of Added Qualifications in Geriatrics.
Core rotations are located on the campus of Northern Dutchess Hospital (NDH). Central to the fellowship is the Center for Healthy Aging, a thriving practice dedicated to the outpatient care of elderly patients. Fellows will be trained in performing comprehensive Geriatric assessments and specialized Geriatric care by our interdisciplinary team. Our clinicians also direct the inpatient Geriatric consult service at NDH. Additional experiences within Nuvance Health system include training in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Neurology, and Geriatric Psychiatry. Fellows will also have the opportunity to work with Geriatricians at our local Veterans Administration facilities.
Program Director Statement:
Our faculty believes that taking care of older adults is an honor and a privilege. Our mission is to improve the lives of older adults and to help those who are most vulnerable. With our aging population, it is critical that future doctors be well trained in taking care of Geriatric patients. Our goal is to meet the needs of patients who are aging gracefully, as well as those with complicated medical comorbidities. We are passionate about training the next generation of clinicians to understand and implement the needs of this special population.
We believe that Geriatricians will be future leaders. Because of our aging population, our colleagues will be looking to Geriatricians to guide the care of older adults. Our program will provide the education and experience you need to become a physician leader in this important discipline. We look forward to meeting you and helping you achieve your professional goals.
Program Information
Northern Dutchess Hospital is an 84-bed nonprofit hospital located in Rhinebeck, NY and will serve as a participating clinical training site for the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program. Northern Dutchess has made its reputation in the community by providing patients with access to quality, close-to-home care and services in cancer, heart disease prevention, bariatric surgery, and healthy aging services. In addition, Northern Dutchess Hospital also provides services in gastroenterology and digestive health, infectious diseases, infusion therapy, intensive and critical care, nephrology, occupational medicine, orthopaedic care, and rehabilitation services, among others. The hospital, as a part of the Nuvance Health system, has been recognized for its commitment to patient care and healthcare services and has received multiple awards, including the Gold Seal of Approval (2020), a CMS Five Start Rating (2021), and designated by the Surgical Review Corporation (SRC) as a Robotic Center of Excellence. While training at this site, fellows will learn the knowledge and skills necessary to excel as physicians in geriatric medicine and will have the opportunity to work with a variety of healthcare professionals.
SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE:
| Number of 4-Week Blocks | Rotations |
| 2 | Geriatrics Core |
| 2 | Long Term Care& Rehabilitation |
| 2 | VA- Inpatient and Outpatient Experience |
| 1 | Palliative Care Inpatient |
| 1 | Palliative Care Outpatient & Hospice |
| 1 | Research |
| 1 | Geriatric Psychiatry |
| 1 | Neurology Inpatient/Outpatient |
| 1 | Mixed Specialty |
| 1 | Elective |
Longitudinal Experience
Less than 2 miles from Northern Dutchess Hospital is Archcare Ferncliff nursing home. The nursing home has over 300 beds and includes a memory care wing that uses a Montessori Method for dementia care and a Huntingdon’s Chorea unit. Fellows will have a longitudinal experience there and 2 rotations there. On the Northern Dutchess Campus, there is a small subacute rehab facility and an acute rehab unit.
Fellows will have a primary care experience that will be located at Woodland Pond Continuing Care Center in New Paltz, NY. This is an outpatient office that serves the Woodland Pond Community as well as the great surrounding community.
Hospice Care Experience
Fellows will do both an Inpatient and Outpatient experience. Inpatient experience will be at Vassar Brothers Medical Center where they have a full Palliative Care inpatient team. Our outpatient experience is through Hudson Valley Hospice, where they have office-based outpatient palliative care consults and full Hospice services that cover the spectrum of care locations including home, hospital and long-term care.
Mixed Specialty Rotations and Electives
The Mixed Specialty Rotation consists of Wound Care, Sports Medicine, and Urology.
Fellows are provided with 4 weeks of elective time to allow fellows to focus on their own unique educational and learning needs. Electives can include Ambulatory Geriatrics, Rehabilitation, Neurology, Psychiatry, Hospice, Hospice and Palliative Care and Consults. Electives are open to the creativity of the fellow. The elective’s goals and objectives and the elective itself must be reviewed and approved by the Program Director.
Didactics and Journal Club
Weekly lectures throughout the fellowship year will cover the core Geriatric topics. Fellows will be taught but will also be teaching themselves and residents. There will be collaboration with other Fellowship and Residency programs, including Palliative Care and Family Medicine. For their research experience, we will utilize the entire Nuvance Health system for our research projects with many clinical researchers and librarians at our disposal.
Journal Club will occur every month during the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship. Fellows will choose an article relevant to current patient care scenarios or Geriatric Medicine as a whole and present this article to the group of fellows and faculty. The fellow will then guide a discussion regarding the merit of the research as well as potential implications for patient care.
How to Apply
The Nuvance Health Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program at Northern Dutchess Hospital thanks you for your interest in applying to our program. We accept all applications through ERAS only and participate annually in the NRMP Match Program. Please use program ID # 1253512002 when applying. We hope you choose to join us.
Requirements: The following items are required for consideration of interview. All items must be received through ERAS application portal:
- Personal Statement
- Current CV
- 3 Letters of Recommendation
- USMLE Step 1 CK or COMLEX Level 1 Score
- USMLE Step 2 CS or COMLEX Level 2 PE Score (we understand that due to COVID-19 and USMLE changes some people may not have been able to take CS or PE)
- USMLE Step 2 CK or COMLEX Level 2 CE Score
- USMLE Step 3
- Program Director’s Letter (for new or recent graduates)
Program Director Biography
Jodi Friedman, MD
Program Director, Geriatric Medicine
Dr. Jodi Friedman has lived in New Paltz, NY with her husband, two daughters, and dog since 2004. She founded the Center for Healthy Aging at Northern Dutchess Hospital in 2010. Originally, she is from the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. Her undergraduate degree is from Emory University, and she attended medical school at University of Pittsburgh. She completed her Family Medicine Residency Program and Geriatric Fellowship at Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia, PA (where she was born!). She worked as Geriatric Clerkship director for the Institute for Family Medicine based in Kingston, NY from 2004 to 2010. She has been part of the Nuvance Family Medicine residency program since its inception in 2019 and currently runs the Geriatric clerkship and serves as Core Faculty.