Timothy W. Farrell, MD, Interim Chief - 2024-present

Dr. Farrell hails from western Massachusetts and completed his undergraduate and medical degrees, and residency and fellowship training, in New England.  Inspired by the challenges and rewards of caring for patients with complex biopsychosocial needs, and with the encouragement of a geriatrician clinician-education mentor embedded within his family medicine residency program, he chose to pursue a career dedicated to caring for older adults and completed a two-year geriatric medicine fellowship at Brown University/Lifespan Hospital in 2009.

As a faculty member at the University of Utah, Dr. Farrell received a HRSA Geriatric Academic Career Award that he credits with developing his skills as a geriatrician clinician-educator with expertise in transitions of care.  He was also selected as a fellow in the second cohort of the AGS/ADGAP/Tideswell Emerging Leaders in Aging Program and completed a practicum aligned with his former role as Director of Interprofessional Education for the University of Utah.  These experiences prepared Dr. Farrell to take on the role of Geriatrics Division Associate Chief for Age-Friendly Care in July 2021, the first position of its kind in the US.  In this role, Dr. Farrell works across University of Utah Health to ensure that older adults reliably receive care based on the age-friendly 4Ms (What Matters, Medication, Mobility, and Mentation) and collaborates with national partners including the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and The John A. Hartford Foundation in this regard.  Under Dr. Farrell’s leadership, University of Utah Health received Age-Friendly Committed to Care Excellence status in November 2021 and was selected in May 2024 as 1 of 30 health systems participating in the IHI Age-Friendly System-Wide Spread Collaborative.  His work to advance age-friendly care includes a partnership with the Yale Patient Priorities Care team on What Matters, the north star of the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement.

Dr. Farrell is deeply involved with the American Geriatrics Society and advancing its mission of supporting the health, independence, and quality of life of all older adults.  He currently serves as Chair of the AGS Ethics Committee, Co-Chair of the Tideswell Emerging Leaders in Aging Special Interest Group, and as a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and the Geriatrics Review Syllabus.  During the COVID pandemic, he led the AGS position statement on rationing scare health care resources and continues to participate in efforts to oppose ageism.  He also serves as co-principal investigator of the AGS Older Adults Vaccine Initiative.