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Medicine has increased the ranks of the elderly. Can it make old age any easier? The job of any doctor, Bludau later told me, is to support quality of life, by which he meant two things: as much freedom from the ravages of disease as possible, and the retention of enough function for active engagement in the world. Most doctors treat disease, and figure that the rest will take care of itself. And if it doesn't-if a patient is becoming infirm and heading toward a nursing home-well, that isn't really a medical problem, is it?