A Lecture 75 Years in the Making Celebrates the Past, Present, Future of Care for Older Adults

As the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) celebrates its 75th year of improving care for older adults, past AGS President and geriatrics researcher James T Pacala, MD, MS, AGSF, highlighted where geriatrics and long-term care have been and where they have yet to go in a
special 75th Anniversary Lecture at the AGS 2017 Annual Scientific Meeting (May 18-20; San Antonio, Texas). Dr Pacala’s presentation addressed past advances in the
care of older adults that have contributed significantly to our increased longevity as a nation.

Professor and associate head in  the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota, Dr Pacala has performed research and published extensively on models of care for older adults and on innovative teaching methods for training future health care professionals. Dr Pacala has also served as past board chair of the AGS and coauthored several of the Society’s most influential texts—most notably, early editions of its annual reference handbook, Geriatrics At Your Fingertips. What really brought Dr Pacala to the #AGS17 podium, however, his prowess as an AGS and geriatrics historian.

“For an organization so attuned to what can be accomplished with time, the AGS is honored that a leader like Dr Pacala added perspective to our anniversary,” noted AGS Chief Executive Officer Nancy Lundebjerg, MPA. “Dr Pacala has seen and led the transformation of geriatrics education and geriatrics research for several decades now—a fitting example of a leader putting our legacy into practice.”

“I wanted to tell the story of the AGS’s past and present. In doing so, I also hope I’ve pointed toward the future of geriatrics—which will be essential to us all as we age,” said Dr Pacala.

Established in 1942 at the height of World War II, the AGS began as a small group of physicians interested in a field that had only recently been defined. Indeed, the first academic textbook on geriatrics was less than three decades old at the AGS’s inauguration. But in the decades since, the organization has grown and evolved exponentially—both in size and scope.

The organization’s first foray beyond clinical care focused on research, exemplified in the 1950s with the first edition of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society—today one of health care’s most influential research periodicals. Geriatrics research burgeoned through the 1980s, with the AGS’s journal now boasting more than 16,000 research articles today.

Concurrently, the AGS met decades of change in the 1960s and 1970s with the launch of specialty training programs, a commitment to seminal public policies like Medicare and Medicaid, and an ever-expanding recognition of the interprofessional nature of geriatrics as a discipline now led not only by physicians but also by nurses, social workers, physician assistants, pharmacists, and many others.

By the new millennium, the AGS had diversified its approach to leading clinical care, academic research, public policy, and public and professional education. Today, the AGS boasts nearly 6000 members in all 50 states and on six of the seven continents. The depth of that community—and its breadth across all facets of health care as more and more of the global population lives beyond age 65—was on full display in Dr Pacala’s lecture.

Slide sets from Dr Pacala’s presentation, as well as from almost all other presentations at #AGS17, are now available for free from GeriatricsCareOnline.org, the online home for AGS resources and publications. 

With eyes now fixed on Orlando, FL, for the next AGS Annual Scientific Meeting (May 3-5, 2018), the meeting planning committee is already soliciting program proposals for updates on geriatrics research, clinical care, public policy, and public and professional education in the year ahead. Visit Meeting.AmericanGeriatrics.org for more details.