To receive our monthly eNews as well as event notices and other updates, just enter your email address.
Take a moment to learn more about NYAM's activities and events.
The New York Academy of Medicine and the Royal Society of Medicine have enjoyed a close and productive relationship for many years, including library and conference privileges as well as access to RSM housing for NYAM Fellows visiting London. In the past decade we have conducted annual joint conferences on topics of mutual interest in medicine and public health.
On September 26-27, 2011, NYAM and The Royal Society of Medicine presented their most recent Annual Joint Symposium with the theme of “Promoting Health in Aging.” The event brought together clinical health professionals, researchers, and policy makers, to focus on important determinants of health in older persons. The program presented the findings of long-term cohort studies regarding the antecedents of health status in older age and efforts to intervene at various points across the life course.
Professor Diana Kuh of University College in London delivered the first evening’s keynote address, “The Life Course Perspective in Promoting Health in Aging.” Professor Kuh traced the roots of the study of healthy aging back to 1946, when both the UK and the US were focusing on childhood health as a means to understanding adult health and, eventually, healthy aging. Her presentation included two longitudinal studies, both of which took place in the 1940s and ‘50s, and highlighted the changing concepts of health over time.
Dr. Luigi Ferrucci, Director of the Baltimore Longevity Study at the National Institute of Aging, opened the second day’s program with a keynote address on the biological background for health in aging. Following his keynote, the day’s first panel, “Proximal Determinants of Health in Aging: A Life Course Perspective,” considered important social and environmental determinants of health in older adults. Professor Avan Aihie Sayer of the University of Southampton shared findings on the influence of factors such as birth weight and early nutrition on later life, while Dr. Louise Hawkley of the University of Chicago addressed the negative impacts of loneliness on health in older adults.
The second panel provided a closer look at three long-term cohort studies regarding factors affecting health status in older age: the Centenarian Study (Dr. Thomas H. Perls, Boston University), the Nun Study (Dr. Kelvin O. Lim, University of Minnesota) and the English Longitudinal Health study in Aging (ELSA) (Professor Anthea Tinker, King’s College, London). These studies have extended understanding of the interaction of genetic as well as physical and social environmental factors as they bear on physical, social and cognitive functioning in old age.
The day’s final panel focused on a range of interventions and the evidence available as to their effectiveness. Dr. Michelle Carlson of The Johns Hopkins University described the successful Baltimore trial of the Experience Corps, a volunteer program for older adults in public elementary schools, which led to increased physical activity and improved cognitive function and memory among the volunteers, as well as improved academic performance among the students they worked with. Dr. Ruth Finkelstein, Senior Vice President for Policy and Planning at NYAM, presented NYAM’s Age-friendly NYC partnership with the Mayor’s Office and New York City Council, which takes a policy-based approach to meeting the needs of older adults in many sectors of city life.
In the wrap-up session that closed the symposium, Professor Tom Kirkwood of Newcastle University highlighted the variety of population studies discussed over the course of the event, and stressed the importance of maximizing opportunities to bring their respective findings together. Dr. Sandro Galea of Columbia University then emphasized one of the symposium’s main themes: that the study of aging involves the study of the entire life-course trajectory.
“If the study of aging were to focus only on the old we would be missing the key lessons,” Dr. Galea said. “We need a sea change in public health science to move the study of aging out of the ghetto at one end of the spectrum and broaden it.”
The symposium was supported in part by unrestricted educational grants from the May & Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Pfizer, and The New York Community Trust.
Posted on September 28, 2011
Contact:
Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10029
212-822-7285
amartin@nyam.org
Reporters: to arrange interviews with NYAM medical and urban health experts, contact
Andrew J. Martin, Director of Communications
212-822-7285 / amartin@nyam.org
The 2012-2013 Duncan Clark Lecture - The Affordable Care Act: An Insider’s View
Featured Speaker: Sherry Glied, PhD, former Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
November 19, 2012 - The NYAM Section on Health Care Delivery welcomes Sherry Glied, PhD, former Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who will deliver the 2012-2013 Duncan Clark Lecture on "The Affordable Care Act: An Insider's View."
Learn more »
The New York Academy of Medicine with support from the New York State Heath Foundation released a new report, Federal Health Care Reform in New York State: A Population Health Perspective.
This report identifies opportunities that build on both the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) and New York’s ongoing efforts toward improving the health of its 19 million residents.
Read press release
Read report
