Critical Roles of “J-Hospitalist”

Abstract

The term “Hospitalist” has become very popular in USA already, ever since this concept was first introduced in 1996. The critical role of the hospitalist has been well-recognized among all of the US hospitals and it is clearly distinct from the traditional model of “hospital patient care” provided by primary care physicians. Recently, the concept of “Hospitalist” has been introduced in Japan, and there is increasing recognition of it as a “new subspecialty”. However, the role of this newly emerging physician’s group is not as clear as the one in USA, and the adoption rate has been still slow in Japan. It would be worthwhile to review the history of hospitalist movement in US and its evolution to help better understand the concept. Then, I would like to define the roles of “J-Hospitalist” in this article.