Dr. George Abraham Taler, geriatrician and professor, dies

Yahoo

30-04-2025

Dr. George Abraham Taler, a physician who specialized in geriatric medicine and advocated house calls for the homebound elderly at a time when this practice was disappearing, died in his sleep of coronary artery disease April 16 at his Severna Park home. He was 75.
Born in Marburg, Germany, he was the son of Dr. Joseph Taler, who practiced medicine in Anne Arundel County, and his wife, Bronislawa, who assisted him in his medical work. Both his parents were Polish Holocaust survivors.
He came to Baltimore in 1951 and was a Severn School graduate. He earned degrees at the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Dr. Taler was a resident at the University of Maryland Medical Center and completed a geriatrics fellowship at the Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation in New Hyde Park, New York.
At 15, he met his future wife, Cyndy Renoff, through mutual friends. They attended the 1969 music festival at Woodstock, New York, and married in 1977.
As a geriatrician, professor, mentor, and author, Dr. Taler focused his career on creating comprehensive care for the elderly and homebound. He visited his patients at their homes and introduced modern mobile technology, an interdisciplinary social health team and a financial sustainability model.
He said to his patients, 'Don't go to the hospital, people die there.'
'He learned about house calls and their value from our father, whose medical practice was based in Glen Burnie,' his sister, Gustava E. Taler, said.
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From 1980 to 1999, Dr. Taler led the geriatrics care and house call medicine team at the University of Maryland Medical Center and served on the Maryland Medical School faculty.
'Dr. Taler was determined to make the world a more ethical place,' said a colleague, Dr. Eric DeJonge.
'He showed up every day with warmth, humor, creativity, a big smile, and a work ethic that set a standard for all around him,' Dr. DeJonge said. 'His legacy is one of kindness and unwavering generosity. He lived his life with purpose, and in so doing, helped others live theirs with dignity.'
He was featured in a 2004 article in The Baltimore Sun entitled, 'Physician's black bag making a comeback.' The article described what he carried, 'a portable computer, a digital camera, an instrument for measuring oxygen in the blood and, depending on which patient he's headed to see, a hand-held EKG machine.'
Dr. Taler said in the story, 'You might liken it to a supercharged V-8 in a Model T frame.'
In 1999, Dr. Taler came to the MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., where he co-founded the MedStar House Call Program.
He later introduced legislation on Capitol Hill, which led to the Independence at Home Demonstration Act.
Dr. Taler later served at MedStar's Good Samaritan Hospital and was the medical director for Collington Continuing Care Retirement Community in Bowie. He was most recently the medical director at Symphony Manor in Roland Park.
He also co-founded the American Association of Family Physicians' Home-Based Primary Care Member Interest Group, was the founding president of the Maryland Geriatrics Society.
He played the piano and designed his residence on the Magothy River. He had been the camp physician at Camp Airy in Thurmont.
Survivors include his wife of 48 years, Cyndy Renoff, a former flight attendant; two sons, Dr. David J. Taler, of Indianapolis, Indiana, and Jordan H. Taler, of Baltimore; a sister, Gustava E. Taler, of Baltimore; and four grandchildren.
A memorial service is being planned.
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