PRESIDENT'S LETTER

The committed efforts of our members, Board of Directors, committees and advisory groups, staff, and generous supporters made 2006 a year of notable achievements for the American Geriatrics Society.

This year, the AGS Board adopted a new strategic plan that places added emphasis on two of our key priorities -- raising public awareness of the value of geriatrics healthcare, and advocating for public policy that supports such care. We made significant progress with both.

Early in the year, we debuted our new Health in Aging Advocacy Center, which keeps members and other advocates of quality elder healthcare apprised of developments affecting care for older adults, and makes it easy to advocate for policy supporting it. During the year, the center launched 15 advocacy campaigns aimed at, among other things, blocking two potentially devastating Medicare physician pay cuts, restoring federal funding for Title VII Geriatrics Health Professions Programs, and reauthorizing the Older Americans Act (OAA). Thanks to the dedication of our members and other likeminded organizations and individuals, these campaigns were great successes. Congress blocked the pay cuts, took steps toward restoring Title VII funds (voting early in 2007 to include them in the fiscal year 2007 federal budget), and reauthorized the OAA. More

We also made significant progress with initiatives in keeping with our other historic priorities - expanding and disseminating geriatrics knowledge; increasing the number of healthcare professionals employing principles of geriatrics care; and encouraging health professionals to enter careers in geriatrics.

During our May 2006 Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago more than 1,000 geriatrics researchers and clinicians presented cutting-edge scientific papers and posters, symposia, core curriculum sessions, and workshops. Also in May 2006, AGS published the 6th edition of the Geriatrics Review Syllabus (GRS6) and the 8th edition of Geriatrics at Your Fingertips (GAYF) and updated its Geriatrics Review Syllabus Teaching Slides Web site with information from GRS6. More

Thanks to the generous support of the John A. Hartford Foundation and the Atlantic Philanthropies, the AGS awarded eleven physician-researchers Dennis W. Jahnigen Career Development Scholars Awards in 2006. The two-year Jahnigen awards help promising academic surgical specialists start and sustain careers in both education and research that are focused on aging issues. The awards go to faculty in anesthesiology, emergency medicine, general surgery, gynecology, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, thoracic surgery, and urology.

With funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation, the FHA presented four outstanding physician-scientists with Hartford Health Outcomes Research Scholars Awards in 2006. These awards go to clinician-researchers making the critical transition from junior faculty to independent researcher, providing them with support over a two-year period during which they conduct elder health outcomes research. The FHA and the Association of Subspecialty Professors (ASP), with the generous support of The Atlantic Philanthropies, also presented the 2006 T. Franklin Williams Scholars Award to Diana Kerwin, MD, of the Medical College of Wisconsin. The award recognizes and supports an academic geriatrician conducting research concerning older patients that is applicable to the care provided by sub-specialists in internal medicine. More

In addition, AGS stepped up recruitment efforts by, among other things, creating a new local mentoring program for students and trainees and launching a Careers in Geriatrics Web page. The page, which profiles geriatrics healthcare professionals in a wide variety of careers, gives potential recruits a sense of the myriad opportunities a background in geriatrics affords.

This year, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) recognized geriatric medicine, and other fields it formerly recognized with Certificates of Added Qualifications,as Subspecialties of Internal Medicine, thereby elevating geriatrics to the same level as other subspecialties of Internal Medicine. The American Board of Family Medicine continued to offer the Certificate of Added Qualifications in Geriatrics.

Here are some additional 2006 highlights (more detailed information about the accomplishments below are found in subsequent sections of this report):

The AGS and FHA continued to work with Environics Communications, a strategic communications firm, to reach media and raise awareness of geriatrics and issues concerning healthcare for older adults. Throughout 2006, AGS members generously volunteered their time to act as media spokespersons, giving interviews with journalists. Over the course of the year, AGS members were interviewed for high-profile stories for programs such as NBC Nightly News and National Public Radio's (NPR) "Morning Edition", and were quoted in The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes.com to name just a few publications.

AGS launched its members-only AGS Grassroots Media Toolkit , designed to help members work with the media to raise awareness of important issues affecting the health of older adults. The toolkit includes easy-to-follow, step-by-step guides to writing Letters to the Editor, Op-Eds, and articles and columns on aging and health.

The FHA debuted its Health in Aging Stories Web site. On the site, older adults who have benefited from geriatrics care and their caregivers recount their experiences with such care. The Foundation and Society share stories from the site, which also features contributions from geriatrics healthcare professionals who explain what makes geriatrics care unique, with the media and policymakers.

AGS' Ethnogeriatrics Committee published Doorway Thoughts: Cross-Cultural Healthcare for Older Adults, Volume 2, which focuses on care for older adults from eight additional ethnic groups.

The FHA enhanced its Aging in the Know public education Web site, adding dozens of new patient information guides, elder health "tip sheets," and easy-to-understand summaries of the latest research in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

AGS continued to assist the Institute of Medicine (IOM) with its study assessing the readiness of the nation's healthcare workforce to meet the needs of an aging society. The AGS proposed such a study in its seminal 2005 report, Caring for Older Americans: The Future of Geriatric Medicine, and advocated for the initiative, collaborating with the Hartford Foundation to bring funders and the IOM together. The IOM panel conducting the study includes several AGS members. Its report, which will provide a blueprint for elder healthcare in the 21st century, is slated for release in March 2008.

AGS leaders met with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and National Quality Forum administrators in Washington to stress the importance of including geriatric quality measures in pay-for-performance (P4P) initiatives. Efforts to incorporate P4P policy, which offers financial rewards to clinicians who meet established quality measures, into Medicare continued to gain ground in the Capitol.

The AGS initiated the third session in its National Institute on Aging (NIA)-supported Bedside to Bench research conference series, a session examining cognitive vitality. Like the previous two conferences, the session, "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.

AGS' Section for Surgical and Related Medical Specialties, which oversees the Geriatrics-for-Specialists Initiative, convened its 5th Annual Meeting, "Insights into the Difficult World of Surgery for Older Adults." The meeting enhances the exchange of information between specialists and geriatricians, and encourages favorable attitudes toward the care of older patients throughout 10 surgical and related specialties.

The Rhode Island and West Virginia geriatrics societies were officially recognized as AGS affiliates, the Indiana Geriatrics Society was granted provisional affiliate status, and AGS members in Massachusetts met to discuss re-establishing a Massachusetts Geriatrics Society. Throughout the year, our affiliates helped raise awareness of the importance of geriatrics care, advocate for high quality care for older adults, and provide important educational and professional networks for geriatrics healthcare providers.

2006 was, in short, a watershed year. Looking forward, we will continue to work to build on the progress we made in 2006, focusing on efforts to raise awareness of the importance of geriatrics care, to advocate for policy supporting such care, to broaden the geriatrics knowledge base, to encourage more healthcare professionals to adopt the principles of geriatrics care; and to recruit promising candidates into geriatrics.

With the support of our generous funders, members, and partners we will continue our overarching effort to enhance older adults' access to appropriate, high quality healthcare.

My heartfelt thanks to all of you who have offered your invaluable assistance with these efforts. We look forward to continuing our important work on behalf of older people - with your help.