Teaching the future teachers in geriatrics: The 10‐year success story of the European Academy for Medicine of Aging

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Abstract
While celebrating the 10th anniversary of the European Academy for Medicine of Aging (EAMA), former students and EAMA members identify 10 major factors that led to the success of the EAMA: (i) extremely motivated academic geriatricians anticipating the future care needs of the oldest old Europeans; (ii) EAMA's exclusive goal ‘to teach the future teachers in geriatrics’; (iii) an excellent location in Switzerland with outstanding teaching facilities; (iv) a residential course of four 1‐week sessions over 2 years consisting of innovative and contemporary content with the strong involvement of the EAMA's scientific board members; (v) a multicultural melting pot of young, promising geriatricians (from 24 different countries) who constitute the academic geriatric relief of tomorrow; (vi) numerous teachers and experts from all over the world; (vii) permanent and informal interaction between students and teachers; (viii) students’ evaluations show marked progress in regard to scientific content, formulation of take‐home messages and techniques of oral presentation before and after each course (over 90% of the participants of the first four courses were promoted and 20% obtained a full professorship in geriatrics); (ix) the well‐designed EAMA concept is confirmed and validated with the recent accreditation by the European Community and the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society; and former students constituting a strong international network have been able to launch similar courses in elsewhere (Middle East Academy for Medicine of Aging; Latin America Academy for Medicine of Aging; Saint Louis University Geriatric Academy; and the European Nursing Academy for the care of the olders).