""""""""Three comparative effectiveness sessions focused on aging and cancer, 90 minutes each, will be incorporated into the 2010 Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America that will take place in New Orleans from Nov 19-23, 2010."""""""" A common chair will preside over all 3 session to ensure the sessions have the same context and themes. """"""""Each session will have 3 faculty who will focus on specific talks in addition to a discussant who will moderate the panel discussion and engage the attendees to interact and participate."""""""" Attendees will have baseline information collected prior to the session that will be used as part of the evaluation process. """"""""Each session will be based around case scenarios. Baseline audience response to the scenarios will be captured. As the case scenarios evolve and the faculty present information and educational material, the audience will be encouraged to revisit their prior responses. This process will allow for the evaluation of these sessions. An evolving case has been attached in the Research Strategy as an example. """"""""Each session will be recorded for the production of webinars to reach audiences beyond the conference.
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) was founded in 1945 and is the oldest and largest international interdisciplinary scientific organization devoted to the advancement of gerontological research and education in aging. A key goal of the GSA is to encourage the dissemination of aging research findings among scientists, decision makers, and practitioners. GSA members and meeting attendees represent a broad spectrum of professionals from the fields of biological sciences, nursing, medicine, social work, economics, policy, psychology, and other social sciences on a global scale, with individuals coming to the meeting from more than 40 countries. GSA has over 35 formal and informal interest groups that are formed around a topic or issue that cuts across disciplines. Interest groups meet at the GSA Annual Scientific Meeting and provide opportunities for networking, collaboration on research projects, and increased involvement for members and non-members in the conference program. The Research on Cancer and Aging informal interest group is led by Bill Given, PhD, Michigan State University, and Keith M. Bellizzi, PhD, University of Connecticut, Human Development and Family Studies. The origins of the GSA began in the late 1930's with a group of physicians and scientists undertaking a series of meetings at Woods Hole eventually forming the """"""""Club for Research on Ageing."""""""" From the beginning the tone of the society was multidisciplinary and basic scientific research was highly prominent. Even in 1954, in her Presidential address, Ollie Randall talked about """"""""the growing necessity for people of different disciplines to be brought together for the mutual benefit of the enrichment of each."""""""" During the 1960's the GSA was influential in the formation of the National Institute on Aging in 1974;a seminal event that eventually ensured a funding stream for research in aging. GSA's 63rd Annual Scientific Meeting will be held in New Orleans, LA, November 19-23, 2010, with the theme of """"""""Transitions of Care Across the Aging Continuum."""""""" The conference will allow attendees to explore the circumstances that surround significant transitions that older adults experience over their life course. These include health and health care transitions, social transitions, financial transitions, psychological transitions, and more. This meeting brings together more than 3,500 of the brightest minds in the field of aging who participate in over 400 multidisciplinary scientific sessions including symposia, paper, and poster presentations featuring the newest aging research to improve the lives of older adults. Examples of the range of aging research addressed at the meeting include topics such as studies of residents'relationships with caregivers in assisted living settings, the effects of vitamin D on muscle composition, development of stem cell therapies to combat Alzheimer's disease, and, the focus of this proposal, comparative effectiveness research in older cancer patients. The site of the 2010 conference will be the Hilton, New Orleans Riverside, New Orleans, LA. The entire GSA meeting will run from November 19th to the 23rd. All participants will be eligible to attend any part of the three sessions and participants beyond those attending the meeting will be eligible to attend the webinar presentations developed from these sessions. The sessions and webinars described in this proposal are co-sponsored by the International Society of Geriatric-Oncology (SIOG) and the American Geriatrics Society (AGS).
