Rebecca Conant, MD
Associate Clinical Professor
Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco

I am a geriatrician whose professional life is focused on providing house calls to frail patients. I became a geriatrician because I am passionate about improving care for older people. I have been a member of the AGS since fellowship because the AGS fulfills a variety of needs that let me act on this passion: professional development, expertise, networking, setting standards and providing a public "face" for our field.

I appreciate the clinical and research focus on excellence. As a clinician, I am eager to provide the best possible care to my patients, and AGS helps to foster the development and distribution of best practices, guidelines, information, and support for providers, caregivers, and families.

I also appreciate the educational focus. As a teacher, I try to convey my passion for geriatrics to my trainees. As the Institute of Medicine report makes so clear: the workforce to care for elders is inadequate. I see this as a call to action: we all should be teaching our colleagues how to provide high quality care to elders. AGS provides a place for educators to gather and to share content and process with each other.

The sense of camaraderie and collaboration between members of AGS is wonderful. Senior members are welcoming and always seem happy to have a conversation with a junior member, fellow, or student. This is clearly evident in the mentoring program and in the variety of educational offerings during the annual meeting.

I have become increasingly aware of the role of advocacy in AGS. The sense of urgency for change has grown as the dysfunction of our broken medical system is colliding with the increasing number of frail elders who are not well-served by the discontinuity of care. This was particularly evident during our annual meeting in Washington this year, as members lobbied Congress. I am currently on the front lines, trying to provide care to frail homebound elders. I appreciate being part of a larger movement to improve the whole system of care, perhaps even fundamentally changing how medical care is delivered in the United States.

Membership in the AGS affords numerous benefits - free subscriptions to the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and other AGS publications, discounted admission to the AGS Annual Scientific Meeting, access to the AGS members-only Web site, opportunities to play leadership roles in the organization, and more. If you'd like to share your reasons for being an AGS member in this new column, please contact Erin Weller at eweller@americangeriatrics.org.