Oxford Handbook of Geriatric Medicine

This new edition of the Oxford Handbook in Geriatric Medicine has been expanded and updated to reflect the substantial changes in clinical practice since the previous edition, including the Francis report and the impact on care for the older patient, the National Dementia Strategy and screening, and the evolution of the role of Geriatricians in other specialities. It includes new material on risk scoring management of TIA, and a new chapter on the older surgical patient. With an ageing population, geriatric medicine is increasingly central to emergency and internal medicine in hospital settings and in general practice. Diseases are more common in the older person, and can be particularly difficult to assess and to treat effectively in a field that has limited evidence, yet makes up a substantial proportion of the work of most clinicians. Using clinical vignettes and how-to boxes to provide practical advice on common problems, this is a practical, accessible, and essential handbook for all medical staff who manage older patients.

About the Author

Dr Lesley Bowker qualified in 1990 from Southampton, completing further training in Wessex (SHO and registrar jobs) and Oxford (senior registrar) followed by a year in Perth, Australia as a senior lecturer. She was a 'career geriatrician' from early days and developed a research interest in practical clinical ethics especially relating to the elderly. Her DM thesis (awarded from Southampton in 2003) was in the practical and ethical issues surrounding life-sustaining treatment in the elderly person. Her consultant appointment at Norwich in 2002 allows her to combine clinical work with education as the clinical skills coordinator for the school of medicine at UEA. Dr Sarah Smith trained at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, qualifying in 1994. She went on to do house jobs and an SHO rotation at her training hospital, which is where she developed an interest in geriatric medicine. After an ITU post in Brighton, she joined the SpR training scheme for geriatrics and GIM in the Oxford region, completing in 2003. After maternity leave, Dr Smith was appointed as a part-time consultant in Community Geriatrics and GIM for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals. Her area of special interest is stroke.