[Internal medicine and geriatrics in the United States. Face to face].

Chiefs of American University medical departments met with their geriatrician counterparts, in order to define the role of Geriatrics within the discipline of Internal Medicine. Options for pregraduate training, practical courses during the period of study and specific teaching during specialization or during further education were carefully chosen. Fundamental and clinical research is considered indispensable, for this alone will permit the dawning of "Centres of excellence" in Geriatrics, which will be the guarantee of a training that has been rendered necessary by demographic and public health considerations.