-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Jean-Pierre Michel, Katharina Pils, Cornel Sieber, Commentary, The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Volume 57, Issue 12, 1 December 2002, Pages M812–M813, https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/57.12.M812
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
Geriatrics is the youngest of the big clinical disciplines. Less than one century after the creation of the word “geriatrics” by the American-Austrian born Ignatus Nascher (1) and around 50 years after the British nomination as a distinct clinical discipline (2), “geriatrics thus faces a crossroads” (3). Nothing seems more natural and challenging.
The world was never as old as today, and it seems only one intermediate step of an incredible victory of hygiene, mother-and-child health, and adult medicine. Care to older persons does and will continue to contribute to this increase in life expectancy. At present, it is important to highlight similarities but also differences between the developed and developing world, as well as the United States of America and other developed countries, mainly within Europe with their individual health systems. In this respect, the somewhat pessimistic view of Professor Kane is not entirely shared on the other side of the Atlantic ocean. Nevertheless, difficulties also exist in Europe to position geriatrics positively amongst established medical disciplines and, in particular, internal medicine (4).
