My Kind Of Doctor

Many doctors have a specialty that focuses on a specific type of patient or condition. Pediatricians treat infants and children. Cardiologists attend patients with heart problems. People dealing with skin issues go to see dermatologists.

Seniors have their own specialty doctors - geriatricians. This field is a sub-specialty of internal medicine. Supplementing medical school and post graduate training, these "senior" physicians complete a fellowship that focuses on health conditions specific to aging. In addition to the assessment and treatment of seniors, this training can prepare a doctor to deal with social, ethical, economic, psychological, long-term care and legal issues that are faced by elderly patients and their families. This training can also help the doctors to understand when maintaining function and quality of life takes priority over the cure of disease.

As the senior population continues to grow, it is logical that the need for doctors who understand and treat senior health issues grows along with it. Here are some other reasons why the need for geriatricians is growing.

• For adults over the age of 65, 80% have at least one chronic health condition and 50% have at least two.
• The typical senior sees the doctor more often than the general population. A senior visits the doctor 9.3 times/year. (The average for the general population is 4.7 visits/year.)
• Seniors are hospitalized 3 times more often than the younger population. Also, their hospital stays are 50% longer.

As the need grows, the number of geriatricians has not kept up, and actually their numbers have declined. In 1998, there were about 9,000 in the U.S. By 2006, that number of geriatricians had dropped to under 7,000.