The Major Challenge in the Medical Field Right Now

"What do you expect to be the major challenge of your career in medicine, why, and how should it be addressed?"

At present, medicine is advancing at an ever-increasing rate. New discoveries relating to all aspects of human health are constantly being unearthed and old ones are steadily being improved upon. Consequently, the life expectancy of humans has risen significantly. We have become far superior to our ancestors at diagnosing, managing, and improving our population’s general health. Being one of my main interests within the medical field, geriatrics is where I foresee most of the challenges of my career to come.

The two problems I think will have the greatest effects on me, and the community of medicine are: the increased financial pressure the ageing population puts upon the National Health Service; and the increased difficulties of treating people who have acquired dementia.

In developed first-world countries the ageing population has led to an increase in the number of people over the age of 80. In 2012, in the UK there were 3 million people over 80 years old and, by 2037, this number is predicted to more than double to 6.1 million. This is creating a huge amount of pressure on the NHS, which will have to develop along with the aging population, in order to run the health system in original and effective ways.

I believe this will be a major challenge of my career as; the older people are, the more likely they are to develop a disability or chronic illness. This is due to the fact that, as you age, your immune system starts to decay. The older you are, the more time you have had to come into contact with diseases. One memory cell is reserved for each threat you have come in contact with, this is in case the threat r...

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... certain situations. This could either be outlined with the patient, if they are capable of such discussions, or with a member of their family if it is necessary to do so. This would then create a personal manual, which would make those with dementia easier to treat, and therefore have a higher quality of life.

In summary I feel that the main problems that I will come into contact in the future will be the tight financial situation surrounding healthcare caused by an increase in life expectancy and secondly the increased difficulty with tackling dementia patients, helping them to understand their treatments and health situations. I do however feel these can be overcome and that the best way of addressing them is through less unnecessary expenditure and also GPs to slightly adjust their role to become coordinators of care for people over 75, or those with dementia.