Certification: Another Step for Geriatric Medicine

Abstract

On April 20, 1988, throughout the United States and Canada, the first certification examination in geriatric medicine will be administered. Those who pass will be awarded a certificate recognition of added competence in geriatrics. This is a landmark event, for several diverse reasons. Geriatrics has emerged as a well-defined field of expertise. Since the now almost legendary Institute of Medicine committee, chaired by Paul Beeson, issued its report in 1979, 1 stating that there was clearly a distinct area of geriatric medicine that could be identified by its special body of knowledge and approach to patient care, there has been growing acceptance of that assertion. While at first many in academic medicine and community practice were skeptical, saying I have been taking care of old people for years already, there is an increasing understanding of better ways to evaluate patients, establish the goals of treatment, and achieve those goals. The