Geriatric education in osteopathic medical schools.

To determine if the curricula at the colleges of osteopathic medicine (COMs) are adequately preparing their graduates to meet the challenge of the geriatric demographic imperative, the authors surveyed the 16 COMs using a modified version of a survey conducted by Karuza and colleagues. Results were compared with those obtained from the Karuza and colleagues' survey of 73 allopathic medical schools. Overall, 88% of the COMs reported that they were committed to teaching geriatrics to undergraduate medical students, compared with 72% of the allopathic medical schools. Lack of time and appropriate clinical facilities were the two greatest barriers to committing more time to geriatrics in both osteopathic and allopathic undergraduate medical training programs.