Lynn Ischay/Kaiser Health News Likover swims at least three times a week, serves on several committees addressing seniors' issues and calls herself a huge Jon Stewart fan. Seniors Share Their Secrets With Budding Doctors It wasn't just what the visitors said that made an impression, but how they said it. Students who braced themselves for a solemn litany of medical problems from the panel were in for a surprise. Successful outcomes depend on the patient's cooperation and that, she said, requires 'an understanding of who the patient is.' More than 400,000 people 80 years old and older received knee replacements 35 percent of men over 80 and 19 percent of women have coronary heart disease and the most common medical procedure among people over 65 is cataract surgery. 'No matter what you'll be doing, you are going to be working with these folks,' she said. Yet she warned them not to overlook the needs and outlooks of older patients. The low number of geriatricians is not surprising considering that their average salary was $184,000 in 2010, almost three times lower than what radiologists earned, the American Geriatrics Society has reported.Įlizabeth O'Toole, a geriatrician and med school professor who arranged the panel discussion, acknowledged in her introduction that most students were interested in other specialties. To meet the projected need, the society estimates medical schools would have to train at least 1,500 geriatricians annually between now and 2030, or five times as many as last year. Yet there are only about 7,000 geriatricians currently practicing. The American Geriatrics Society estimates that the nation will need about 30,000 geriatricians by 2030 to serve the 30 percent of older Americans with the most complicated medical problems. Yet Hill is one of the few Case students who say they are leaning toward choosing geriatrics. The 36-year-old North Carolina native may owe as much as $300,000 when he graduates - enough, he is quick to point out, to buy 'a nice-sized house.'

Student loans are a burden for many medical students. Students often are attracted to more lucrative specialties such as orthopedics or cardiology, said Jeremy Hill, who was in the audience. And their patients can have diseases that can only be managed but never cured.ĭebt Weighs On Decisions About Specialties It is among the lowest-paid specialties, and geriatricians must contend with complex cases that are time-consuming and are often not reimbursed well by Medicare or private insurance. The annual panel discussion, called 'Life Over 90,' is aimed at nudging students toward choosing geriatric medicine, the primary care field that focuses on the elderly. Madison and Likover were among six people all over the age of 90 invited to talk to second-year medical students this month.

The medical profession has to address that.' 'But to expect that from families when they are in crisis is expecting too much. 'When someone is in the hospital, they need an advocate with them at all times,' said Likover, who turned 96 in October. 'You are knowledgeable in treating patients, but I'm the patient, too, and if someone had said she can't control anything, I would have been better able to understand what was taking place.'īelle Likover recounted for the students how she insisted when her husband was dying of lymphoma that doctors in the hospital not make decisions without involving his oncologist. 'A week before she passed away her behavior was different, and I was angry because I thought she was deliberately not doing things,' Madison, 92, told a group of nearly 200 students at Case Western University Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland. His successful career as an architect hardly prepared him for what came next. When doctors told Robert Madison that his wife had dementia, they didn't explain very much. It has been updated to reflect the current ages of the subjects. Editor's note: A version of this story first ran on Sept.

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