About the Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology & Palliative Care
Here at UC San Diego, we are working to optimize the experience of aging, help older adults live their best lives longer, and improve care for individuals with serious illness. We do this with a team of outstanding physicians, world-class scientists and a stellar staff providing excellent clinical care, advancing important research, and training individuals to better care for older adults and people living with a serious illness.
Tailored Care for Our Older Patients and People Living with Serious Illness
Caring for older adults requires more than treating individual diseases — it requires understanding the whole person. Our geriatricians and healthcare team understand the unique and often complex needs of older people and are dedicated to delivering compassionate, person-centered care to patients and their families, aiming to keep our older patients healthy and high functioning as they age, and maintain their independence and quality of life. We believe in providing quality care to the individual – knowing what are appropriate and not appropriate screenings and treatment options for individuals, not only based on their age, but also their functional capacity, their support systems, and most importantly, their individual wishes. Our faculty provide clinical care to older adults in a variety of settings, including primary and consultative care in the clinic, the hospital at-home, skilled nursing, and specialized dementia care.
Our interdisciplinary palliative care team provides timely and supportive palliative care services to patients with serious or life-threatening illnesses and care for their often complex emotional, physical, social, and spiritual needs. Palliative care services provide relief from the troubling symptoms and stress of an illness and can be valuable to patients at any age and at any stage of a serious illness. They also provide an added layer of extra support, often alongside other specialty teams, to improve patient comfort, function coping and well-being. Our palliative medicine faculty come from a variety of backgrounds and many have additional shared appointments in other divisions and departments, such as nephrology, neurology, and hospital medicine. Together, the team provides services in the hospital and in various clinics, including within the cancer center, the geriatric medicine clinic, and the pain clinic.
Educating Others - Training Health Professionals Today To Help Shape Tomorrow
Sharing our passion and educating others about the specific needs of our aging population and those with serious illness is a high priority for us. UC San Diego has multiple training programs in geriatrics and palliative care. We are home to one of the largest palliative medicine fellowships in the country, and a local leader in geriatrics working to train health care providers across San Diego and Imperial Counties on optimal dementia care and elements of age-friendly health care.
Advancing Important Research
Our division is currently conducting research and supporting early-stage investigators in areas including Alzheimer’s disease, the role of mitochondrial bioenergetics in age-related conditions, substance use and abuse in older adults, health disparities, HIV and aging, technology use in older adults, and digital translational research and digital health equity. We have a growing and diverse team working to build new cross-discipline research partnerships and collaborations. We are also home to multiple, large Center collaborations, including the San Diego Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (AD-RCMAR), the San Diego/Imperial Geriatric Education Center, and the Gerontology Research Collaborative.
Our Three Pillars: Geriatrics, Gerontology and Palliative Care
What is Geriatrics?
Geriatrics care can be viewed as Medicine Plus (+)! Geriatrics specialists focus on comprehensive health care, ranging from general preventive care to specialized care needs. Geriatricians address the whole person, including an emphasis on maintaining a person's level of functional independence and improving their quality of life. They also consider “what matters” to the individual – their personal values and preferences – and incorporate this into tailored care plans. As we get older, our health care needs change, so it's ideal to work with a physician who has special training in keeping older adults healthy.
What is Gerontology?
Gerontology is the study of the aging process and aging individuals. It goes beyond health and disease and addresses other elements of our older population and the aging experience (emotional, social and economic needs, etc…), along with how society views aging.
Geriatrics and Gerontology are two disciplines that largely go hand in hand. Taking a broad perspective on quality of life, addressing the needs of the whole person (and often a person's family), and evaluating community resources, have always been a foundation of the work we do! Geriatrics and Gerontology are also both very multidisciplinary - often relying on a team approach and perspectives from multiple areas of expertise!
Additionally, geroscience studies the biological mechanisms of aging and aims to target the aging process itself to prevent or delay multiple diseases simultaneously. Geroscience includes research on aging biomarkers and other biological hallmarks of aging.
What is Palliative Care?
Palliative care helps people of any age living with serious, progressive, and life-threatening illnesses feel and function better – physical, emotionally, socially, and spiritually – while they continue active treatment with their other clinicians. The role of palliative care is to maximize well-being and quality of life. Ideally provided by an interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, chaplains, and psychiatry, palliative care specialists focus on the relief of symptoms and stress of serious illness at any stage of disease, manage complex symptoms, clarify options, and also provide caregiver support.