Conference Series: Bedside to Bench

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a proposal for a 3-year conference series, through the mechanism of a U-13 conference grant award, sponsored by the American Geriatrics Society. The Award would support the conduct of an annual workshop each year for 3 years. The broad goal of these workshops, entitled "Bedside to Bench", is to heighten research attention on clinical geriatric issues that are of pressing concern clinically or has the potential to greatly improve clinical care or prevention for older adults if scientific knowledge is advanced. The short-term outcome of each of the conferences proposed is to identify the recommended research agenda for these pressing clinical geriatric issues. The Ultimate outcome of the recommended research will be to obtain and translate research results that will improve the clinical care and Health outcomes of older adults. The Conference in the first year will be on a "Research Agenda for Frailty in Older Adults: towards a better understanding of physiology and etiology". In the second year, we will conduct a "Working conference on Understanding Comorbid Disease and Total Burden of Disease in Older Adults". The third Annual conference will be entitled "Effects of Cognitive activity on Cognitive Function in Late Life". Each of these invitational conferences will be directed by an organizing committee of experts in the field, who will identify and invite speakers, convene the conference, direct the scientific focus, and ensure the preparation of final reports on the proceedings of the meeting and publication of documents that propose a research agenda in each area. These reports will be published as supplements in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and forwarded to the National Institute on Aging for it's consideration. The meetings themselves will be organized by the staff of the American Geriatrics Society.