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CANCER IN THE OLDEST OLD
Author(s) -
Wilkinson Tim
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1999.tb07249.x
Subject(s) - medicine , gerontology , demography , older people , population , cancer , disease , incidence (geometry) , hospital admission , stroke (engine) , pediatrics , mechanical engineering , physics , environmental health , sociology , optics , engineering
In contrast, the age-related approach of practicing Geriatric Medicine not only puts the functional dimension out of focus, but geriatricians themselves will often see many functionally independent patients who will not be extracting from them what they have been best trained to do. In this era of health-finance concerns, we believe that if Departments of Geriatric Medicine themselves are organized with a primary focus on the typical geriatric syndromes, such an approach can allow the resolution of the seemingly contradictory goals of optimally managing frail older people while concurrently minimizing global costs. We recognize, too, that the points raised herein ultimately touch upon the very definition of Geriatric Medicine. It is our submission that Geriatric Medicine should be defined as a subspecialty of Internal Medicine that focuses on function-linked geriatric syndromes.