Geriatric medicine. From neonate to toddler.

Abstract

Over the past five to ten years, geriatric medicine in the United States has grown from a neonate to a toddler, and, like a 2-year-old, it has begun to get into everything! Its importance to a number of specialties—especially internal medicine and family practice but also psychiatry, neurology, and physical and rehabilitative medicine—has been recognized by leaders in each of those fields. For example, on Nov 29, 1981, the American Board of Internal Medicine publicized 11 initiatives it had undertaken to signal the importance it attaches to excellent care of the aged by internists. Similarly, in 1983, the American Academy of Family Physicians developed a first-rate set of guidelines for training family practice physicians in geriatric medicine, which were endorsed by the American Geriatrics Society. The American Psychiatric Association established a Council on Aging some years ago, and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation formalized a committee on