[skyguy79]

Originally Posted by Villages PL

Here's some information that might help with the "geriatric question". I called ask-a-nurse at The Village's Hospital this morning. I asked, "what's the difference between a doctor who has studied Internal Medicine and a geriatrician?"

This is the answer she gave:

Internal Medicine covers general medicine for adults (14 and older).

Geriatricians, in addition to having studied internal medicine, have special knowledge and training for the diseases and disorders of the elderly.

I would add this: It seems logical that a Geriatrician would provide better overall care if they have a better understanding of the elderly. And a better understanding would likely result in a different drug prescription.

It is a reasonable deduction that a geriatrician ("might," rather than) "would" provide better overall care as you stated, but not necessarily. With all due respect for the ask-a-nurse resource, those definitions you were given do NOT quite match what information I found from more than one source when researching.

From that research I had indicated on my prior post, "a Family Doctor's training includes geriatric medicine which is a sub-specialty of both family medicine and internal medicine that focuses on health care of elderly people. Simply put, a geriatrician is essentially an extension of those two medical disciplines.

Might it just be a case of semantics here? I don't know, but in either case I just don't see it the way the ask-a-nurse put it and I'm more than happy with the qualifications of our doctor.