(Washington Post) – Proposals to assess older physicians have collided with fierce professional resistance, legal challenges and debate about the value of cognitive screening.

What happens when aging doctors continue practicing as their abilities decline?

“It’s becoming a bigger issue with each passing year,” said clinical neuropsychologist Victor Del Bene of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who has warned of a “looming public health crisis” as an aging physician workforce combines with a persistent undersupply of doctors. Nearly 47 percent of active U.S. physicians are now 55 or older — up from about 38 percent in 2007. (Read More)