Charles A. Cefalu, MD, MS

Charles A. Cefalu, MD, MS, is Chief of the Section of Geriatric Medicine for the Medical Center of Louisiana and Clinical Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine. He graduated from LSU School of Medicine-New Orleans in 1974 and completed a residency in Family Medicine at Earl K. Long Hospital in Baton Rouge, LA, where he joined the faculty as an Instructor. He later served as Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of the program, and through February 1981, he was Residency Director of the program.

In 1982, Dr. Cefalu joined the Tulane University School of Medicine faculty as Medical Director of its affiliated state teaching hospital at Lallie Kemp Hospital in Independence, La., and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Tulane Medical Center. In 1985, he entered private family and geriatric practice in rural southeast Louisiana. After practicing in Kentwood, La., for four years, he completed a combined Geriatric Medicine Fellowship and master's of science degree in Epidemiology at Wake Forest University-Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.

After this fellowship, he joined the faculty at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., as Chief of Geriatrics for the Department of Family Medicine and Associate Professor of Family Medicine. During his tenure at Georgetown, he developed medical-student and resident-teaching programs in the department and planned, developed and directed a Geriatric Medicine Fellowship at the Georgetown University School of Medicine affiliated teaching hospital.

Starting in July 1997, Dr. Cefalu served as Professor and Associate Chairman for Geriatric Program Development in the Department of Family Medicine at LSUHSC School of Medicine-New Orleans. He was appointed Director of the new Geriatric Medicine Program at the Medical Center of Louisiana in July 2002. The new multi-million dollar program also includes Geriatric faculty slots, a Geriatric nurse practitioner, plans for an accredited Geriatric Medicine Fellowship program, and additional nursing, pharmacy and other personnel to coordinate the program. The Fellowship will be open to Family Medicine and Internal Medicine physicians who have completed residency or are board eligible or certified in either specialty. The program, when fully operational, will put the Medical Center of Louisiana, affiliated with Tulane and LSU schools of medicine, on the cutting edge of Geriatric Medicine. Dr. Cefalu wrote the proposal for this program which received high marks with the state auditors in Baton Rouge.

In 1999, Dr. Cefalu was elected to serve as Co-Chairman of the Council of State Affiliate Representatives and the Board of Directors of the American Geriatrics Society. He is the author of numerous regional, national, and international publications relative to Geriatric Medicine and has spoken at local, regional, and national Geriatric conferences. He also servied as Principal Investigator of a Phase III Clinical Study of an investigational medication to treat osteoporosis; LSU was one of 100 international sites that participated in the study.

Dr. Cefalu holds joint appointments in the departments of Medicine and Neurology at LSUHSC School of Medicine inNew Orleans and in the Department of Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine. He is board-certified in Family Medicine and Geriatric Medicine.