When Mark Lachs, an internist who specialises in the care of the elderly, looks into the not-so-distant future, he sees millions of retirees and not enough doctors. “The baby boomers are moving through the belly of the beast and are coming out 65,” he says. “The numbers are just overwhelming; about 7,000 geriatricians for millions of older people.”

Every day an estimated 6,000 Americans turn 65. Four years from now, that figure will swell to 10,000 people a day so that by 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older. At the same time, geriatrics programmes across the US are shrinking, the number of certified geriatricians is falling relative to the population, physicians are disenrolling from Medicare, and fewer medical students are choosing careers in geriatrics.