The aging physician and the medical profession: a review.

Patchen Dellinger; Carlos A. Pellegrini; Thomas H. Gallagher

Review

The aging physician and the medical profession: a review.

August 9, 2017

Dellinger P, Pellegrini CA, Gallagher TH. JAMA Surg. 2017;152(10):967-971.

View more articles from the same authors.

Physician skills can degrade with age. Other high-risk industries assess older practitioners to confirm cognitive and technical competency, but medicine has been slow to adopt this safety strategy. Exploring how to approach assessments of the aging physician, this review suggests that health care institutions and professional organizations should develop processes and policies that support appropriate skill review within the context of physician well-being and patient safety.

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