The Impact of VA's geriatric research, education and clinical centers on academic affiliates

The education mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is to train health professionals to benefit VA and the United States. One approach for achieving that mission, along with VA's research and clinical missions, was the establishment of Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Centers (GRECCs) in 1975. These were developed at VA hospital sites that had existing strong partnerships with schools of medicine already engaged in research on aging. GRECCs were funded to enhance those research enterprises, to expand health professions education in geriatrics, to expand interest in geriatrics among medical faculty and to support them to become more expert in geriatrics, to develop new approaches to care of the aging, and to disseminate the lessons learned within VA and beyond. Using 2001 and 2008 data from two surveys of U.S. medical schools' geriatrics programs, this article explores the impact of GRECCs on geriatric programs at their affiliated schools of medicine. It demonstrates how VA's academic mission through GRECCs has benefited VA and its affiliates and how it has benefited the nation through the growth of geriatric medicine as an academic enterprise and a legitimate clinical specialty.