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Should geriatric medicine remain a specialty? Yes

¹ Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing, School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Australia 6001

The development of geriatricshas greatly improved care for older people. Leon Flicker believesspecialist care remains important for this vulnerable group,butC P Denaro and A Mudge (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39533.696076.AD) argue that age divisions are no longer relevant

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

How are specialties of internal medicine determined? Mostly by a focus on individual organs, which reflect the colocation of cellular systems, which have been so arranged by some chance survival advantage common to all mammals. Even within a specific "organology," individual specialists have a distinct range of expertise based on patients’ and practitioners’ interests, such as interventional versus non-interventional cardiologists. The advantage of subspecialisation, no matter how determined, is clear—it allows the practitioner to focus on specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes that can achieve better patient outcomes. However, for most subspecialties of internal medicine, the evidence for benefit on patient outcomes is lacking. Fortunately, this is not the case for geriatric medicine, and in fact if the specialty of geriatric medicine did not exist, we would be obliged to invent it.

Evidence of benefit

The origins of geriatric medicine lay in the medical neglect of older people with multiple chronic illnesses and concomitant . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Oliver, D. (2008). Geriatric syndromes continue to be poorly managed and recognised. BMJ 337: a892-a892 [Full text]  
• Yelland, C. E (2008). Geriatric medicine remains a specialty. BMJ 337: a894-a894 [Full text]  

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