Older adults receiving care from a primary care physician have complex biopsychosocial needs. It is estimated that 50% of these patients suffer from at least three chronic conditions, 15% have cognitive impairment, 65% report musculoskeletal pain, 31% feel anxious, and 21% are hospitalized annually. The primary care health system is the main site of health care delivery for these older adults. However, this health care system is facing a major challenge of delivering safe, high-quality, and cost-effective services to its patients in general and to those with complex biopsychosocial needs in particular. The physicians in a primary health care system have insufficient time to spend with their patients and feel overworked and dissatisfied. Any suggested add-on assessment, intervention, or change to this system must take into account this reality. In this issue of our journal, Dr. Jang and his colleagues (Jang RW, Man-Son-Hing M, Molnar FJ, et al. Family physicians’ attitudes and practices regarding assessments of medical fitness to drive in older persons. J Gen Intern Med. 2007; http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-006-0043-x) provide very useful information related to the physician’s role in decreasing the societal burden of unsafe older drivers. The investigators surveyed 460 English-speaking Canadian family physicians and collected data on the physicians’ attitudes and practice’s patterns related to assessing the driving fitness of patients aged 65 years and older. (Author/publisher)
Abstract