A RECENT National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference statement 1 has concluded that geriatric assessment is effective in improving important health outcomes when performed under certain circumstances. The report appears in full in the April 1988 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society . This commentary interprets the conference panel's findings in the light of everyday practice and emphasizes the extent and limits of present knowledge regarding applicability of assessment methods to the care of older persons. The panel that prepared this report was made up of five geriatricians, five other physicians, and five individuals from nonmedical fields. In concluding that comprehensive geriatric assessment is effective when coupled with ongoing implementation of the resulting care plan, the panel has given credence, perhaps for the first time, to the emerging new principles of care of older persons and to the renascent field of geriatrics. This is a
David H. Solomon (1988) studied this question.