User talk:Ianrlawson

Re. the (very comprehensive) section on "Comorbidity": Before Feinstein's innovation of the term, there was the quaint idea, taught to medical students and perhaps medical house staff, that ONE diagnosis would be sufficient per patient. More than that indicated slackness in our diagnostic efforts. My senior colleague and mentor in geriatric medicine thought differently and, from 200 admissions to our geriatric medicine unit in Aberdeen, Scotland, we published an article in The Lancet of 1962 on multiple pathology in the elderly (by Wilson, LA, Lawson, IR, and Brass, W - the last being our senior medical statistician: Lancet, Oct 1962, v.2., pp841-843). In our discussion, we dealt with the myth of the single diagnosis, particularly regarding the elderly who were hitherto being lumped into 'senility.' [This serious error is still being propagated for death certification in the UK!] Ian R. Lawson, MD, FRCPEdin., FACP.