2024 Volume 39 Issue 1 Pages 58-62
Japan became the first country in the world to enter the super-aged society in 2007, and reform of the healthcare system and welfare policies is now an urgent issue. The elderly with geriatric syndromes and numerous chronic diseases can easily have serious and complicated conditions. In general, medical care has been focused on 'cure-seeking medical care' for single diseases, but a paradigm shift is needed to 'cure- and support-seeking medical care' for the elderly, with an emphasis on quality of life. In addition to 'preventive medicine', it will also be necessary to develop 'preemptive medicine', which starts at a stage before a disease or disorder occurs. This will require the development of new predictive measures and diagnostic methods that integrate novel biomarkers, genomic, proteomic and metabolomic analysis, and analysis of other clinical information, etc. Although ageing care research has progressed dramatically in recent years, it has not been sufficient in the field of Pancreatology. In the future, new knowledge about ageing will be accumulated through various approaches, so that evidence-based medical care can be provided to elderly patients with pancreatic diseases.
