The third edition of Geriatric Medicine appears at a crucial time for health profession- als, a time when the values and goals of our overall American health care system are being reoriented to those values and goals that have long been at the core of geriatrics. It is likely that the readership of this highly respected textbook will be even substan- tially greater than that for the two previous editions or, for that matter, for any other textbook on geriatric medicine published in the United States. This third edition continues what its predecessors began-the goal of closing the gap between our knowl- edge of the proper care of older persons and our capacity to deliver that care. Numerous journal articles and forewords and prefaces to geriatrics textbooks claim that the field of geriatrics has matured. Geriatrics may have "matured" since the publication of the first edition of Geriatric Medicine in 1984, but the maturation process has been slow and is still incomplete. It is true that the field has advanced in many areas. It has been recognized as an area of added qualification by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Family Practice, and they have certified thousands of fully qualified physicians in geriatrics over the past decade.