AGS Committees, Task Forces, Workgroups, and Advisory Groups

The American Geriatrics Society's committees, task forces, workgroups and advisory groups make vital contributions to our efforts to ensure older adults access to quality healthcare. AGS extends its thanks to the many members who generously volunteered their time and talents to committee, task force, workgroup, and advisory group work in 2006.

Here are some highlights of their work over the course of the year:

AGS' Clinical Practice Committee reviewed the following practice guidelines from other organizations in 2006:

• The American Heart Association's "Evidence-Based Preventive Cardiology Guidelines for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Women"
• The University of Colorado/ University of California, San Francisco "Current Practice Guidelines in Primary Care"
• The American Psychiatric Association's "Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients With Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias of Late Life"

The Ethnogeriatrics Committee published the much awaited second volume of Doorway Thoughts: Cross-Cultural Health Care for Older Adults - a guide to help clinicians and geriatrics educators better understand important cultural differences among older patients. This second volume addresses care for Arab American, Cambodian American, Filipino American, Haitian American, Korean American, Pakistani American, Portuguese American and Russian American older adults. More

Charged with determining what constitutes appropriate geriatrics fellowship training, the Education Committee, in collaboration with the Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs (ADGAP), published a set of recommendations on fellowship training in geriatrics on the AGS Web site. The "Fellowship Position Paper", part of AGS' planning efforts concerning the future of geriatric medicine, concluded that certain areas of geriatrics require additional training that could warrant extending some fellowships to two years. These areas include administration, research, education, palliative care, nursing home care, home care, chronic disease management and health services management. Geriatrics fellowship programs should also require each fellow to complete a project that helps him or her develop leadership skills, the position paper recommended. The AGS Education Committee, and the ADGAP and AGS boards of directors approved the paper in May 2006.

In 2006, AGS' Ethics Committee and Research Committee began drafting a Stem Cell Position Statement, an effort that continued into 2007.

AGS' Health Care Systems Committee published a policy position statement concerning electronic health records in 2006. "While information technology alone is not sufficient to improve the quality of care, it can substantially improve the efficiency of the work process," the statement noted. "The potential for improved communication as health information follows patients from one care setting to another could improve transitions for patients, caregivers, family members, and each level of health care provider. The opportunity for improved data collection for individual care, as well as population strategies, could revolutionize medicine and improve care oversight in a manner not seen since the birth of Geriatrics as an entity of Medicine."

In an effort headed by members Richard Stefanacci and David Elliot, the Health Care Systems Committee and Aurora Health Care launched a free, interactive online educational program concerning the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2006. The program, "Medicare Part D - Implications for Physicians and the Healthcare Team," was designed to help geriatricians and other professionals better understand the Medicare benefit, and both answer their patients' questions about and help patients get assistance with the benefit. The program offered physicians continuing medical education credit.

The Public Education Committee continued to collaborate with the New York Junior League's volunteer SeniorCare committee on projects concerning older adults in 2006. Founded in mid-2005 with 13 members, the Junior League's SeniorCare committee boosted its membership to 22 in 2006, and worked with AGS' Public Education Committee to refine its community presentations based on the FHA's award-winning caregivers' guide, Eldercare at Home. In 2006, the Junior League committee reached an estimated 328 seniors through a total of 30 presentations with five community partners in New York City.

In addition, the Public Education Committee and the Research Committee continued to play key roles in publishing the highly popular summaries of recent studies from the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) that appear in the New Research section of the FHA Web site. As part of this Research and Public Education committee initiative, easy-to-understand summaries of two to four JAGS articles targeted to the lay public are posted to the site each month. Members of both committees review the summaries before these go to the JAGS authors for final approval.

The Public Policy Advisory Group was instrumental in numerous public policy efforts in 2006. The group played an important role in: shifting AGS' approach to public policy so the Society is more proactive in addressing important policy issues; planning the first of what will be annual AGS Public Policy Summits to identify and prioritize public policy initiatives; boosting AGS' capacity to influence policy by, among other things, hiring additional staff. The advisory group's efforts were also vital to building awareness of coding and reimbursement issues among AGS leadership and membership; and in advocacy on behalf of Title VII Geriatrics Health Professions funding and the Geriatric and Chronic Care Management Act (later revised and renamed the Geriatric Assessment and Chronic Care Coordination Act).

On the advice of AGS' Quality Ad Hoc Workgroup (QAHWG), AGS joined the American Medical Association (AMA) Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI) in 2006. This allowed AGS and QAHWG leaders to play a key role in forming an expert workgroup to develop several geriatrics measures for inclusion in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service's (CMS') 2007 Physician Voluntary Reporting Program (now known as the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI)). These measures are for: screening for risk of falls; medication reconciliation; advance care plans; assessment of the presence or absence of urinary incontinence in women 65 and older; characterization of urinary incontinence in women 65 and older; and plans of care for urinary incontinence in women. In a parallel effort, AGS also became a member of the National Quality Forum (NQF). Members of the QAWHG responded to the NQF's call for ambulatory care specialty measures by submitting 11 geriatrics measures based on the work of the Assessing the Care of Vulnerable Elderly (ACOVE) program.

The Research Committee and AGS leaders met with National Institute on Aging (NIA) leadership in April 2006 to discuss several initiatives and projects, including the Paul B. Beeson Career Development Awards in Aging Research Program; NIA and other research and awards programs; joint AGS/NIA annual meeting initiatives; progress with the Institute of Medicine study concerning the geriatrics workforce in the 21st century; the Geriatrics for Specialists Initiative; AGS' mentoring program; and future research collaborations.

The last of three sessions in the Research Committee-initiated, National Institute on Aging (NIA)-supported "Bedside to Bench" research conference series took place in March 2006. Like the previous two sessions, this final one, "Effects of Cognitive Activity on Cognitive Function in Late Life," focused on important but poorly understood problems of aging identified by clinicians in clinical settings. Looking forward to 2007, NIA has funded a second series of three "Bedside to Bench" conferences. The first session, focusing on possible links among cognitive, movement, and mood disorders among older adults, is slated for September 2007. More

AGS Creates Task Forces to Restructure Committees and Streamline Nominations Process
As part of its strategic planning efforts, AGS created two task forces -- one to review the structure of its committees and advisory groups, the other to review and streamline its officer nominations and selection process - that began work in 2006.

The Committee Restructuring Task Force was charged with determining whether any additional committees or groups were needed and whether some should be consolidated. The task force also began examining the staff support needs of AGS committees. The Bylaws Task Force was charged with comparing AGS' officer nominations processes - particularly those regarding nomination of the president-elect -- with those of similar organizations, such as the American College of Physicians. It also began investigating ways to streamline the nominations process.

AGS Recognizes Committee and Advisory Group Members for their Service to the Society
The AGS recognized the following committee and advisory group members for service and outstanding contributions in 2006:

Outgoing Committee and Advisory Group Members

Richard Ackermann, MD, Ethics Committee
Michelle Bellantoni, MD, Clinical Practice Committee
Ellen Binder, MD, Research Committee
Patrick Coll, MD, Clinical Practice Committee
Kenneth Covinsky, MD, Research Committee
Hollis Day, MD, Education Committee
Roy Erickson, MD, Health Care Systems Committee
Bruce Ferrell, MD, Education Committee
Joseph Gallo, MD, Research Committee
Kathryn Hyer, DrPA, MPP, Education Committee (Ex Officio, AGHE Representative)
Karin Johnson, DO, Public Policy Advisory Group
Fred Kobylarz, MD, MPH, Research Committee (Ethnogeriatrics Committee Rep)
Janet Kushner-Kow, MD, Ethnogeriatrics Committee
Vicky Lampley-Dallas, MD, MPH, Ethnogeriatrics Committee
Mark Lehman, PharmD, Public Policy Advisory Group
Thomas Loepfe, MD, Public Policy Advisory Group
Steven Phillips, MD, CMD, Health Care Systems Committee (Past Chair)
Mary Roth, PharmD, MHS, Clinical Practice Committee
Ron Stock, MD, Health Care Systems Committee
Belinda Vicioso, MD, FACP, CMD, Education Committee
Neil Wenger, MD, Ethics Committee

Committee Members Receiving Outstanding Service Awards

Kyle Allen, DO, Health Care Systems Committee
Christine Arenson, MD, Education Committee
Michele Bellantoni, MD, Clinical Practice Committee
Diane Chau, MD, Public Education Committee
Patrick Coll, MD, Clinical Practice Committee
Carmel Dyer, MD, Ethnogeriatrics Committee
Bruce Ferrell, MD, Education Committee
Moria Fordyce, MD, Public Education Committee
Michael Gloth, MD, Health Care Systems Committee
Jennifer Kapo, MD, Ethics Committee
Fred Kobylarz, MD, MPH, Ethnogeriatrics Committee
George Kuchel, MD, Research Committee
Rosemary Laird, MD, MHSA, Health Care Systems Committee
Matthew McNabney, MD, Clinical Practice Committee
Seema Modi, MD, Ethics Committee
Irene Moore, MSW, Public Education Committee
Steven Phillips, MD, CMD, Health Care Systems Committee
Rebecca Silliman, MD, PhD, Research Committee
Robert Schreiber, MD, CMD, Health Care Systems Committee