FEATURE EDITION
THE CHANGING STATE OF GERIATRICS BayCare Physician Discusses Factors That Affect Our Aging Population by PAMELA PALONGUE
T
he field of geriatric medicine generally focuses on patients older than 65, but the determinants of socioeconomics, education, access and lifestyle can make it somewhat of a moving target.
“Geriatrics is perhaps a bit of a misnomer,” says Dr. Robert Atkins, a BayCare Medical Group primary care physician and geriatrics specialist. “It’s really a constellation of things that can determine when a person needs to see a specialist in geriatrics.” Some patients may need additional expertise with age-related problems in their 50s if they are experiencing early-onset dementia, advanced heart disease or complications such as diabetes. Other individuals may not need a geriatrician until their 70s. Atkins has had an interesting and diverse career path, which has given him a window to the large variation in the aging population. An eastern Kentucky native with a background in engineering, Atkins was witness to individuals with labor-intensive jobs who sometimes had limited health education, and struggled with food insecurity and poor health habits. With the added stress of job-related environmental
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Dr. Robert Atkins
exposures, their health sometimes deteriorated much more quickly than that of individuals in more affluent life situations. It was this disparity that initially drove Atkins’ desire to practice medicine and, specifically, geriatrics. “I was very interested in underserved populations,” he says. “These individuals were sometimes having to choose between paying www.centralfloridahealthnews.com
