Elder Health Review

Geriatrics is a medical specialty with a focus on the prevention and treatment of disease in later life. In their approach to patients, geriatricians tend to focus less on chronological age and more on cognitive and physical function. 

Geriatricians are trained in either Internal Medicine or Family Practice. However, in addition to their general training, geriatricians have several years of specialty training focused on issues specific to older individuals such as dementia, delirium, depression, drug metabolism and side effects specific to the elderly, frailty, disability, and end of life care to name a few.

Read about the medical specialty of geriatrics in Atul Gawande's New Yorker article.