Diseases AND or IN frailty, an important conceptual difference

Frailty is a clinical state that increases an individual's vulnerability. It is an outcome marker in several medical scenarios. However, there is a lack of recognition in the medical field. Frailty should not be regarded as a condition superimposed to disease. Contrarily, it should be noticed as a state frequently found either as a component of diseases themselves or as their outcome. The work of a geriatrician is focused on the best possible approximation to the medical and psychosocial issues that an elder has, and must join the treatment team when the person has a considerable number of conditions that makes him/her frail. Traditionally medicine has focused mainly on illnesses, but the state of frailty requires a change of mindset, through a multidimensional person centered approach.