The Geriatrics Corner: What Is Geriatrics?

The wrenching changes in the socioeconomic of health care that have occurred over the past decade in the United States have, to some extent, distracted the public from awareness of other changes in the health care field that can only be called "good news:" During this same period, important advances have been made in our understanding of the most basic elements of biology, and also in our understanding of many clinical conditions. One clinical area that has made great strides is geriatrics.

Just what is geriatrics? As a term, geriatrics seems to have had its origin almost 100 years ago, coined by Ignites Nastier and used in the title of his 1914 work, Geriatrics: The Diseases of Old Age and Their Treatment. [1] However, the term has come into general usage only within the past …