From The President

2007 was a red letter year for the American Geriatrics Society in many ways. It was, among other things, the year the Society turned 65 -- reaching that milestone just four years ahead of the eldest of the nation's 77 million Baby Boomers.

Established in 1942 to "encourage and promote the study of geriatrics," the Society has since expanded on that mission. Our key priorities now include not only encouraging healthcare professionals to employ the principles of geriatrics, expanding the geriatrics knowledge base, and recruiting health professionals into geriatrics, but also raising public awareness of the importance of geriatrics care, and advocating for public policy that supports such care. Thanks to the hard work of our members, staff, and consultants, and in collaboration with other likeminded organizations, foundations, lawmakers, and grassroots advocates, we made considerable progress in all of these areas in 2007.

Following a concerted campaign in which AGS members and other advocates urged Congress to restore Title VII Geriatrics Health Professions Programs funding, legislators voted in February to fund these crucial training programs in fiscal year 2007. Subsequent AGS advocacy campaigns, guided by our first annual public policy planning summit in March and aimed at both ensuring Title VII funding through 2008 and blocking a 10.1% cut in Medicare payments to physicians, also got results. In December, Congress voted to earmark $31 million for Title VII Geriatrics Health Professions Programs for the current fiscal year. They also delayed, for six months, the 10.1% physician pay cut, which had been slated to take effect January 1. Instead, lawmakers instituted a 0.5% pay increase through June 30. (To keep tabs on how individual legislators have voted on these and other issues affecting healthcare for older Americans, check out AGS' new Congressional Report Card, at www.americangeriatrics.org/policy/ags_congressional_report_card110thcongress.shtml, which also debuted in 2007.)

Over the past year, AGS made progress toward another important public policy goal - passage of the Geriatric Assessment and Chronic Care Coordination (GACCC) Act. The Society worked closely with Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Susan Collins (R-ME), who introduced the legislation in May. As I noted in testimony before Congress, the act would fill a significant gap in traditional Medicare by covering geriatric assessment and care coordination services for beneficiaries with two or more chronic conditions. Thanks to AGS outreach, several additional legislators have co-sponsored the legislation, and more than 30 key health and aging organizations have endorsed it. In addition, the 36 million-member AARP endorsed a proposed Medicare demonstration project based on the GACCC Act. [For more on AGS' public policy accomplishments in 2007, see related story.]

This past year saw closer ties between AGS and the AARP. The association's leaders met twice with AGS' board to discuss common ground and possible collaborations. At our upcoming Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, DC, this May, AGS will honor AARP CEO Bill Novelli for his and the organization's groundbreaking work on behalf of older Americans. Mr. Novelli will also be a keynote speaker at the meeting.

Collaborations like these are increasingly important and can be extremely fruitful. In 2007, AGS joined a highly successful American Academy of Home Care Physicians-led effort on behalf of higher Medicare reimbursement for home and domiciliary care visits. In November, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that it would increase reimbursement for these visits this year.

Throughout 2007, the Society's efforts to raise public and professional awareness of the value of geriatrics care made headlines. Lots of them. AGS and its members were featured on so many programs, and in so many newspaper, magazine, and Web site articles (in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and WebMD.com, to name just a few) that the Society created a new "AGS in the News" page, at http://www.americangeriatrics.org/news/in_the_news.shtml.

Over the course of the year, AGS' Foundation for Health in Aging (FHA) redesigned, updated, and expanded its entire Health in Aging Web site (www.healthinaging.org), which offers a wealth of up-to-date, easily understandable health information and advice for older adults and their caregivers. Among other things, the FHA added stories to its Stories Site, which includes contributions from older adults, their caregivers, and geriatrics professionals who describe the difference geriatrics care has made in older adults' lives. AGS shares these stories (at http://www.healthinaging.org/caregiver/) with the media and with legislators to illustrate the value of this care.

In related efforts to raise awareness of the satisfaction of careers in geriatrics, and boost recruitment, AGS expanded its "Careers in Geriatrics" Web page (at http://www.americangeriatrics.org/education/career_caring.shtml) in 2007. The Society added new profiles of geriatrics healthcare professionals in a wide range disciplines and a FAQ section in response to questions from trainees and members.

Throughout the year, AGS continued its work to expand the geriatrics knowledge base and increase the number of health care professionals following the principles of geriatric care. A near record 2,700 geriatrics healthcare providers, researchers and educators gathered in Seattle for our 2007 annual meeting. More than 600 researchers and clinicians presented cutting-edge scientific papers, posters, symposia, and workshops.

AGS, along with The John A. Hartford Foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, and the FHA, also awarded nearly $2 million to leading clinicians and scientist in 2007 to support research to improve healthcare for older adults. Twelve academicians in surgical and other medical specialties who have a special interest in, and knowledge of, the care of older adults received Dennis W. Jahnigen Career Development Scholars Awards. Four physician-researchers making the critical transition from junior faculty to independent researcher received Hartford Geriatrics Health Outcomes Research Scholars Awards.

AGS also awarded 25 medical school and hospital residency programs in the surgical and related medical specialties two-year Geriatrics Education for Specialty Residents (GSR) grants to better prepare residents to care for older adults. Thanks to the generosity of the John A. Hartford Foundation -- which last year provided an additional $5.08 million in funds for the programs for the next four years -- AGS awarded more than twice as many grants as in previous years.

Later in the year, ADGAP, with support from the John A. Hartford Foundation, awarded five medical schools grants of $114,00 each so they could replicate Boston University's highly successful Chief Resident Immersion Training Program in the Care of Older Adults (CRIT) . The program aims to familiarize chief residents with geriatrics syndromes, the functional assessment of older patients, assessing decision making capacity, preoperative and postoperative evaluation, and management and discharge planning. Another four medical schools will receive funding to launch CRIT programs in 2008, and a final four, in 2009.

AGS published updated editions of its Geriatric Nursing Review Syllabus and Geriatrics at Your Fingertips, including a version of GAYF for PDAs, in 2007, as well. In September, AGS, the National Institute on Aging, and the John A. Hartford Foundation hosted "Thinking, Moving and Feeling: Common Underlying Mechanisms?" -- the first in a new series of "Bedside to Bench" research conferences. The series focuses on important but poorly understood problems of aging that have been identified by clinicians at "bedside." "Thinking, Moving and Feeling," examined potential shared contributors to, and interventions for, the cognitive, movement and mood disorders that often coexist in older adults.

2008 will bring its own challenge and opportunities and I'm confident AGS will build upon the success of the past year during this new year. Since this is my last column as AGS President, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank AGS' staff, members, and consultants for their invaluable assistance during my tenure. It's been a pleasure working with you and on behalf of quality healthcare for older people.