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Societal Implications of Geroscience Workshop

    Date & Time:

    December 5, 20249:00 AM – 4:30 PM ET


    Location: In Person & Virtual

    AARP National Office

    601 E St NW, Washington, DC 20049


    Register By:

    In Person: December 1, 2024Virtual: December 5, 2024


     

    According to the National Institute on Aging, geroscience is the study of the “genetic, molecular, and cellular mechanisms that make aging a major risk factor and driver of common chronic conditions and diseases of older people.” Understanding the biological process of aging will help inform the development of clinical interventions to prevent, delay, slow, halt, or even reverse this trajectory and, in turn, the onset of chronic disease and age-related decline in health.


    The marked increase in research and resources dedicated to geroscience is exciting and has the potential to have a massive impact in the years and decades to come. This workshop, sponsored by AARP and The John A. Hartford Foundation, aims to examine the associated societal issues and considerations that warrant significant attention as geroscience advances. Topics such as bioethics, equity and access, cost, social norms, and consumer rights must be considered.


    Agenda

    ARRIVAL AND BREAKFAST | 9:00 – 9:30 AM


    WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION | 9:30 – 9:50 AM

    • Victor J. Dzau, MD, President, National Academy of Medicine

    • Debra Whitman, PhD, Chief Public Policy Officer, AARP


    GEROSCIENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF HEALTHY LONGEVITY | 9:50 – 10:50 AM

    This session will introduce the field of geroscience and provide an overview of the latest research and future directions. Then, speakers will explore how advancements in geroscience can extend healthspan while also contributing to ongoing efforts to achieve healthy longevity at a societal level. Speakers will highlight the need to integrate geroscience into a broader public health approach in response to longer, healthier lives and the imperative of equity and access in healthcare.

    • Moderator & Speaker: Linda Fried, MD, Dean, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University; Co-Chair of Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity

    • Felipe Sierra, PhD, Chief Science Officer, Hevolution Foundation

    • Nir Barzilai, MD, President, Academy for Health and Lifespan Research; Director, Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine


    EQUITY BY DESIGN | 11:00 AM – 12:10 PM

    This session will focus on the important implications for society related to access, cost, equity, social norms, and ethics when it comes to the development of future interventions that aim to extend healthspan. Speakers will highlight racial disparities in healthspan and discuss how racism and poverty are contributing to accelerated aging; whether and how advancements in geroscience could address or expand such disparities; and whether specific policies can be implemented to support the potential for geroscience to reduce health disparities.

    • Moderator & Speaker: Arline T. Geronimus, ScD, Professor, Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan

    • S. Jay Olshansky, PhD, Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Illinois Chicago

    • Doris Molina-Henry, PhD, Scholar, USC Schaeffer Institute, Assistant Professor of Research Neurology

    • Nancy Jecker, PhD, Professor of Bioethics and Humanities, University of Washington School of Medicine


    DEMOCRATIZING THE PRINCIPLE OF GEROSCIENCE | 12:15 – 1:00 PM

    This session will present tools and interventions that can facilitate democratization of the geroscience principle. Most of the geroscience discussion focus on the potential of gerotherapeutics, and less about opportunities to modulate the biology of aging though changes in behavior (e.g., diet, exercise, sleep) and social determinants of health (e.g., pollution, food deserts, the built environment). Speakers will discuss how these goals could be facilitated by emerging wearable devices, for example, movement trackers, glucometers, software for tracking food intake, and as well as the potential utility of biological clocks to change health related behaviors.

    • Moderator: Michele K. Evans, MD, Deputy Scientific Director and Chief, Health Disparities Research Section, National Institute on Aging / National Institutes of Health

    • Roland J. Thorpe, Jr., PhD, Professor, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University

    • Josh Denny, MD, MS, CEO, All of Us Research Program, National Institutes of Health


    LUNCH | 1:00 – 1:45 PM

    COMMUNICATION ABOUT GEROSCIENCE TO COMBAT AGEISM | 1:45 – 2:45 PM

    This session will provide a frame for how geroscience fits into the natural process of aging. Speakers will explore ways to communicate about geroscience that not only avoid stigmatization of older adults and the aging process but help address ageism. Speakers will also discuss how ageism and disparities in healthspan could affect the perception of geroscience interventions. Given that aging is both a natural phenomenon and an important phase in the life course, speakers will explore how extending healthspan can unlock benefits for individuals and society.

    • Moderator & Speaker: Becca Levy, PhD, Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences) and Psychology, Yale University

    • Lisbeth Nielsen, PhD, Director, Div. of Behavioral and Social Research, National Institute on Aging

    • Mary Tinetti, MD, Gladys Phillips Crofoot Professor of Medicine (Geriatrics) and Professor in the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University


    MEANINGFUL GEROSCIENCE OUTCOMES FOR SOCIETY | 3:00 – 4:00 PM

    This session will discuss the primary objectives of geroscience and desired outcomes at a societal level. Speakers will identify critical considerations in identifying endpoints and performing clinical trials in this space. Speakers will also discuss how geroscience interventions would be implemented or prescribed and which ages and populations should be prioritized for treatment. Speakers will explore how various stakeholders (researchers, policymakers, payers, consumers, etc.) might define success for geroscience interventions and the potential costs and benefits of geroscience to healthcare systems.

    • Moderator: Meena Seshamani, MD, PhD, Deputy Administrator and Director, Center for Medicare

    • Stephen Kritchevsky, PhD, Professor, Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest University

    • Raymond Jetson, President, Aging While Black

    • Luigi Ferrucci, MD, Scientific Director, National Institute on Aging


    REFLECTIONS AND WORKSHOP WRAP UP | 4:00 – 4:30 PM

    • Luigi Ferrucci, MD, Scientific Director, National Institute on Aging



    The Aging Revolution Summit

      Presented by Northwell Health, the Aging Revolution Summit is an invitation-only event bringing together an elite audience of healthcare luminaries, Fortune 500 corporate executives, venture capitalists, private investors, philanthropists, public officials, clinicians, researchers, and top entrepreneurs all with a shared interest to drive strategic partnerships, optimize patient outcomes, and promote age-friendly conversations. The event will take place virtually and in-person on December 3.


      Attendees

      The Aging Revolution Summit will convene a diverse cross-sector group of leaders and luminaries with the common goal of elevating the conversation around aging. Categories will include:

      • Healthcare Luminaries

      • Corporate Executives

      • Venture Capitalists

      • Private Investors

      • Philanthropists

      • Public Officials

      • Clinicians

      • Researchers

      • Top Entrepreneurs


      The Aging Revolution Summit seeks to provide insight into aging care and promote age-friendly conversations by bringing together individuals in health care, business, venture capital, philanthropy, public office, medical research, the community and patients themselves. The summit intends to address popular themes in aging care, including new therapeutics and technologies extending lifespan, the social implications of longevity, support for family caregivers and care for vulnerable seniors.


      “Most health care systems are not comprehensibly equipped to handle the growing needs of our aging population,” said Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health. “We need to embrace innovation, technology and new models of care to ensure that seniors can age with dignity and access the support they need to thrive. We hope that this summit will act as a catalyst for change and provide a space where inspiration ignites action.”

      Some of this year’s speakers include: 

      Interactive Resource: Aging, Functioning, and Rehabilitation

        The rising average age of the world’s population presents an opportunity to rethink health policy. In February 2024, the National Academies convened a hybrid workshop at the University of Lucerne in Switzerland to host a discussion focused on the World Health Organization's concept of functioning and how it could impact overall health with an emphasis on healthy aging and rehabilitation. This new interactive resource summarizes content from the workshop, where participants offered suggestions to operationalize functioning as a health policy measure, rethink disability as a universal human experience, formulate a feasible public health agenda that addresses the increasing relevance of rehabilitation, and more.


        Focus Areas

        Functioning and Rehabilitation for Healthy Longevity

        Workshop participants discussed how both functioning and rehabilitation are key factors in healthy aging, improved quality of life, and the prevention of and recovery from illness and injury across the lifespan. As such, functioning should be added as another dimension of health, beyond measures of mortality and morbidity (Bickenbach). There are various tools that aid in integrating functioning across health systems (Gimigliano), and several strategies that can advance the measurement of functioning and how assessment tools can help practitioners, such as giving equal weight to measures of success in functional tests and including more nuanced data in evaluating interventions (Beard, Prodinger, Simonsick). Importantly, considering what matters most to older adults and moving beyond the minimum level of ability or expectation of such are crucial to countering ageism and focusing on only addressing existing limitations (Bean, Beard, Katz, Keith, Simonsick).


        Functioning as the Foundation for Healthy Longevity Research

        Workshop participants discussed strategies to support healthy longevity research, including developing hybrid assessment tools that combine self-reporting and clinical assessments. A primary topic of discussion was WHO’s ICF system. The ICF system could be used to establish comparability among measures for functioning (Sillitti, Willers); standardize reporting and data collection on functioning in health systems (Bean, Engkasan, Gimigliano, Prodinger, Reinhardt); assist in defining improved outcomes from rehabilitation in the context of research (Beard, Bickenbach, Reinhardt); serve as a context for understanding functioning’s importance in health care delivery and policy (Gimigliano, Hajjioui, Reinhardt); and consider its applicability to aging (Bean, Beard). Implementation research can shed light on intervention efficacy and how interventions should be packaged (Bean). Functioning-based health research could also benefit from developing and using assessment tools or frameworks like WHO’s Integrated Care for Older People model, which uses both patient-reported data and measurements taken by clinicians (Morsch).


        Advocating for Policies that Support Healthy Longevity, Rehabilitation, and Functioning

        Workshop participants discussed how advocating for policy change will require engagement from partners in multiple sectors, including user-led organizations (Hajjioui, Katz). Collaboration across and with health care systems, clinician and patient groups, and content experts is critical (Jette). Reframing advocacy efforts to focus on rehabilitation as an investment to improve functioning rather than just another health expense is also important (Gimigliano). Survey measurement tools and economic research must be strengthened to address measurement gaps that may impact functioning advocacy efforts (Boggs). Improved education about functioning and curricula on conducting and disseminating research for practicing clinicians and those involved in human functioning sciences are needed to train researchers in best practices (Engkasan, Hajjioui, Reinhardt) and all approaches should emphasize community engagement across a variety of settings (Morsch). Ageism must also be addressed, while simultaneously recognizing the value that older adults contribute to their communities outside of the formal workforce, as well as ensuring that older adults’ goals inform policies (Beard, Katz, Keith).


        Making a Compelling Investment Case for Optimizing Functioning and Supporting Rehabilitation Health Services as a Strategy for All People

        Workshop participants highlighted the importance of using return-on-investment and cost-effectiveness studies to build the economic case for investing in functioning and rehabilitation and called for reframing rehabilitation as an investment in improving functioning (Gimigliano, Sillitti, Willers). Workshop participants believe that investing in rehabilitation will reduce the need for acute and long-term care (Sillitti), but more evidence is needed to support the economic case and illustrate the overall return on investment (Boggs, Gimigliano, Sillitti, Willers). Developing better measures of functioning will be key for making a compelling investment case—for example, although DALYs can help quantify the burden of disease, the measure is disconnected from how researchers and clinicians define disability (Reinhardt). Fully supporting functioning will also require coordination between services across the lifespan (Leonardi). Strategies to support addressing functioning comprehensively include adopting new technologies that detect or potentially delay the onset of conditions that impair functioning and integrating rehabilitation in multiple aspects of health systems and communities (Beard, Cieza, Frontera, Jette, Katz, Morsch, Mpofu).


        Workshop Wrap-up

        The workshop concluded with the participants discussing final thoughts, challenges, and opportunities for the field of functioning, rehabilitation, and aging. Barriers to true integration of functioning across the lifespan exist, including too much focus on proxy measures, a bias toward simplistic measures of complex issues, and inadequate cross-sector collaboration (Bickenbach). Making human functioning sciences a distinct discipline would help shift the current medical focus away from assessing a person by their disease, condition, or disability, and echoed several participants’ support for the ICF model as a foundation for improved measurement tools (Beard). The field will have to resolve the tension between improving functioning as a public health strategy and deploying rehabilitation as a clinical treatment strategy, because the two can complement and strengthen each other, while benefiting everyone (Cieza).




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