Rejuvenating Geriatrics: Rethinking the American Geriatric Society’s Approach to Advocacy for Geriatric Medicine

The current problem facing the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) is recruitment of medical students into geriatric medicine. The AGS must convince Federal policy-makers to create financial incentives for geriatricians. Financial burdens discourage medical students from specializing in geriatric medicine.

The American Geriatrics Society must continue to advocate for geriatricians because geriatricians are better equipped to serve elderly patients. Geriatricians will train future healthcare workers how to provide appropriate care to the elderly. It is not feasible to expect all non-pediatric physicians to acquire the training necessary to aid geriatric patients. The reason medical specializations exist is so physicians can focus their knowledge in one area.

The American Geriatrics Society should host an “End of Life Discussions in Geriatric Medicine” initiative with policy makers, physicians on the boards of medical school accreditation committees, geriatrics-trained physicians, and individuals from geriatrics-advocacy organizations like the Hartford Foundation. This initiative will highlight end of life care discussions between physicians and patients.

Death is a topic that will draw attention, and it is closely tied to financial issues in geriatric medicine. Specifically, it is tied to Medicare spending – 40% of the Medicare budget is spent on services for the last 30 days of a beneficiary’s life. The discussion of death and geriatric medicine will raise deeper issues – conflicting values in medicine, ageism, and negative attitudes toward death – that need to be addressed so that the AGS’s advocacy efforts to succeed.