Melding Geriatrics and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation to Help Older Adults

Background Older adults are living longer with a rising number of comorbidities, medical complexity, and disability. The number of older adults in the United States of America is growing with a dramatic surge expected in the next decade as the baby boomers come of age. With increasing age and comorbidities comes frailty, a phrase used to describe a person's physical decline in function and vulnerability to poor health outcomes. Geriatrics is a field of medicine that focuses specifically on older adults who are frail or at risk of being frail. In contrast, physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R), also known as physiatry, is a field that focuses on maximizing and maintaining independence and quality of life for those with physical disabilities or injuries. Key Messages The management of many conditions that impact the care and independence of older adults lies at the convergence of PM&R and geriatrics. Incorporating expertise and individualized approaches in parallel, from both fields, can help improve outcomes for this patient population, as much of the care for these conditions requires multimodal, collaborative solutions with emphasis on things like activity of daily lives, gait, mobility, nutrition, exercise, general health, well-being and fall prevention; to name a few. Summary This review will focus on key topics where the field of geriatrics and PM&R converge with the ultimate goal to improve the overall function and quality of life of older individuals. In particular this review will look at gait and balance, vertigo, fall prevention, hip fractures, neurologic changes, and exercise.