[The complexity of medical care of frail older patients]

Medicine for frail elderly patients is complex because of the omnipresent multimorbidity, multicausality, the high risk of adverse effects, lack of an evidence base for guideline-based treatment options, and the predominance of quality of life-related outcomes, rather than mortality and morbidity. This complexity puts off most medical students, while there is a requirement for physicians who like and are well trained to work with frail older persons. Luckily, there are signs of increasing interest, for example in the excellent introduction to geriatric medicine written by author/surgeon Atul Gawande in his last book "Being mortal" (2014). With this commentary, this journal is starting a series presenting new research findings, insights and case studies on frail older patients in order to spread the expanding knowledge base of geriatrics, and suggest tools for working effectively with this fast-growing, complex but rewarding patient group.