Why Better Care For Older Adults Is The New Medical Frontier

Modern medicine has come a long way in extending and preserving life, keeping people in a state of well-being for longer. As average life expectancy goes up, so does the amount of elderly people. This creates a lot of opportunities for communities. But Dealing with a high elderly population can be challenging. There is certainly room for innovation and perhaps a different approach. As a whole we need to be thinking about a potentially evolving healthcare system and what a further elongated state of well-being looks like. More than half of older Americans manage two or more chronic conditions. What is most challenging at the moment is the lack of geriatric professionals. There are about a third as many currently certified geriatric professionals as currently needed. And the estimates on how many geriatric professionals will be needed in the future is only going to rise. In an effort to bring more people into this specific workforce, some states offer loan forgiveness for future geriatric health care professionals. Another key in managing this demand is reducing hospital readmission, a particularly important measure in geriatric health care. Geriatrics is the future of health care and the demand for innovation brings a lot of opportunities.