Dr. Gerald Blandford, MBBS, MRCP (London), FRCP(C), FACP
Dr. Gerald Blandford was born and educated in London, England. He graduated from King’s College Hospital Medical School, London University, in 1960. After completing several house officer positions (which included two hospital-based geriatric units), he began a research career in rheumatology/immunology and eventually in respiratory virus infections at various academic centers. In 1969 he was appointed by the University of Birmingham School of Medicine as a lecturer in experimental pathology while continuing his influenza research and directing the immunology laboratory for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
In 1971, Dr. Blandford traveled to Toronto, Canada, where he had been recruited to help with the development of a post graduate clinical immunology training program for the University of Toronto Medical School and to chair their committee to develop a post graduate geriatrics training course. While there he also worked as an attending physician in rheumatology/ immunology at Toronto Western Hospital (TWH) and assisted in the development of the Gage Research Center where he continued his research studies in influenza. During his tenure at TWH he was named Director of a newly created Division of Internal Medicine where he was responsible for a major residency training program, 129 acute hospital beds, a 40-bed dedicated geriatric unit and onsite clinical medical services for senior citizens in city supported housing. Dr. Blandford also was involved with the creation of a new certificate of competence in geriatrics for the Royal College of Physicians of Canada where he was elected an examiner in internal medicine for their Fellowship examinations for several years.
Dr. Blandford moved to Akron, Ohio in 1978 to serve as a faculty member of the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and while there he wrote their curricula for immunology, rheumatology and geriatrics. Concurrently he chaired the Department of Geriatrics at Akron City Hospital (A.C.H), was Director of the Ohio state funded Office of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, and obtained the funding for a pioneering geriatric assessment program and the creation of an immunology research laboratory at ACH. Between 1979-82 he was also the Associate Director of the Northeastern Ohio Multipurpose Arthritis Center at Case Western University College of Medicine in Cleveland and was named Principal Investigator for an NIH proposal to develop innovative methods of teaching rheumatology to community based primary care physicians. Somehow Dr. Blandford also found the time to serve as the President of Project Pisces, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative designed to have community-based services share information centrally and prevent the duplication of services.
In 1982 Dr. Blandford was recruited to serve as the Medical Director for the Presbyterian Home in Evanston, Ill. This large retirement home is the principal teaching site for the Northwestern University Medical School (NUMS). He assumed other duties as well, serving as the first Director of the Center on Aging at the McGraw Medical Center at NUMS, Chief of a new Division of Geriatrics and Director of Immunology of the Research Laboratory at Evanston Hospital. He once again used his expertise to write the geriatric curriculum, establish a geriatric assessment program, develop a basic immunology research program in aging and to develop quality assurance protocols.
1986 found Dr. Blandford moving to Princeton to be the Medical Director of their Merrick Unit and their community-based hospice program. Here he again established a new consulting geriatric assessment program and consulted with local developers about setting up alternative living accommodations for the elderly.
Since 1990, Dr. Blandford has been the Medical Director for two nursing facilities owned and operated by Montefiore Medical Center (MMC): the Nathan Miller center (163 beds) and the Loeb Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation (80 beds). The latter facility functions almost entirely as a “post acute care” facility, admitting 4-9 patients daily, having an average length of stay of 24 days and discharging 79% back to the community. He also teaches medicine and geriatrics at MMC and has been the recipient of two New York State, Bureau of Long-Term Care grants to study abnormal feeding behavior in dementia.
Dr. Blandford has published research on the immunology of influenza, the immunology of aging, feeding problems in dementia, osteoarthritis in aging, and geriatric assessment. He has also authored book chapters in well-recognized reference books. An active member of the American Geriatrics Society, he sat on the clinical practice committee for five consecutive years and on the Committee and later the Council of State Affiliates for thirteen years. He was a founding member of the Chicago Geriatric Society (now the Illinois Geriatric Society), founding member and past president of the New Jersey (1988-1990) and the New York Metropolitan Area Geriatric Societies (1987-1997).
Throughout his career Dr. Blandford has exhibited a deep interest in bio-ethical issues. In London in 1966, he dealt with limited resource issues related to kidney and heart transplantation. At Princeton he developed, reviewed and implemented programs on obtaining advance directives, and developed criteria for palliative care and hospice programs. He was a founding member and co-chair of the Lower Hudson Valley Ethics Network from 1992 -1994. Since 1997 Dr. Blandford has been a member of the NYCLTCEN’ s board where he has played a very active role, writing for our newsletter and making presentations at our conferences.
Dr. Blandford states that his continued interest in ethical medical practice concerns “the development of guidelines to 1) manage terminal illness, especially in cognitively impaired individuals, and 2) to assist duly appointed surrogate decision makers in determining what is medically best for the patient.” Given his long and distinguished career as a clinician, researcher, teacher, author, innovator and administrator he is uniquely qualified to evaluate the ethical implications of long-term care. NYCLTEN is fortunate that this very busy man continues to lend his presence and his talents to our organization.
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