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Medical schools need to do a better job of training specialists in aspects of geriatric care, a new study says.

Researchers found that in 2001, 53% of outpatient visits by people 65 and older were to non-primary-care specialists. That changed from 13% in 1980. Experts estimate that by 2030, there will be more than 70 million people age 65 and older in the United States.

“Until recently, most physician visits by geriatric patients were to primary-care providers. The changing needs of the geriatric population have shifted that trend. Now, more than 50 percent of all outpatient visits by geriatric patients are to non-primary-care specialists,” said lead author Elizabeth Bragg, of the University of Cincinnati’s Institute for the Study of Health.

Bragg and her colleagues reviewed the program requirements of 91 specialties in 2003 and found that only 27 of them had specific geriatric training requirements.  That is a problem, according to Bragg, because many physicians will not be prepared for geriatric patients.