Doctors retool for an aging America

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. physicians need to learn how to better care for the nation's fastest growing demographic group -- aging patients, a study suggests.

Dr. C. Seth Landefeld of the University of California, San Francisco, The Institute of Medicine's report "Retooling for an Aging America" concluded the healthcare workforce is not prepared to deliver the best care to the growing population of patients age 60 and older.

Landefeld and colleagues seek to help close the predicted knowledge gap through a series "Care of the Aging Patient: From Evidence to Action" aimed at translating published evidence into daily practice or -- if evidence does not exist -- providing recommendations with a rationale and a potential research agenda.

"Although physicians are knowledgeable about the pathophysiology, diagnosis and management of organ-specific diseases such as cataract, coronary artery disease and pneumonia, many geriatric syndromes are not straightforward and do not fit the conventional paradigm of disease," Landefeld says in a statement. "Are physicians ready for these challenges? How can physicians prepare to meet the needs of patients as they age?"

The articles, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, explore the course of aging -- from the first hints of frailty to the progressive restrictions resulting from a steady decline.