Christine Karen Cassel, MD — administration (medical association presidents), internal medicine (geriatrics), administration (medical school deans)
Courtesy Christine Karen Cassel, MD
“Pursuing difficult questions—in science and in policy—takes one to interesting places,” says Dr. Christine Cassel (b. 1945), a renowned expert in geriatric medicine, medical ethics, and quality of care. “A geriatrician,” she explains, “is like a pediatrician but at the other end of life.... Our job is to improve the quality of life for the elderly and to keep them functional and independent for as long as possible. And when the end of life comes, our job is to keep them as dignified and comfortable as possible.” Geriatrics has only been a formal specialty in American medicine since the 1980s, and although the United States is facing a demographic “bubble” of the aging population, geriatrics is still not one of the most popular specialties.
Read more about Dr. Christine Karen Cassel.
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