Hospitalists might lack the name recognition of physicians such as cardiologists, psychiatrists, radiologists, or pediatricians. But their importance in the medical profession in the United States has increased dramatically since the term was coined by doctors Robert Wachter, M.D. and Lee Goldman, M.D. of the University of California San Francisco in 1996. When people were admitted to the hospital back then, their primary care physician would usually be called in to treat them. ...