The population of the US is older than it has been before, as shared in this article, "between 2010 and 2020, the number of Americans over the age of 65 grew faster than it had in more than 100 years. The American population is older than it’s ever been, with more than 55 million people over 65." What this means is that those that are fortunate enough to live into their 80's, 90's and even later years will be faced with a multitude of medical conditions and comorbidities, at the same time that the number of physicians going into this specialty is shrinking! The article further states "In 2022, only 177 geriatric fellowship positions were filled out of 411 offers — the lowest match rate across 71 specialties of medicine." It is not a requirement to take a single class in medical school about geriatrics which is way more holistic in nature than the other "sexier" specialties.
What this will mean for those of us baby boomers born between 1946-1964 is that we are going to face great challenges to get the medical care they need, at the time that they need it most. As the articles concludes, if current geriatricians can become spokespeople for the type of satisfaction they receive from this work, perhaps with some "re-education and marketing", this type of specialty will gain traction. The article concludes, by saying "Listening to geriatricians talk about their work with such commitment, passion and even joy, it’s hard not to be persuaded that all patients deserve the kind of medicine at the heart of geriatric care. Ultimately, the continued drop in geriatricians will hurt us all."
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