The AGS created the David H. Solomon Memorial Public Service Award in 2002 to honor David H. Solomon, MD, AGSF, for his commitment to community service and the advancement of knowledge in caring for older adults. Dr. Solomon was the founding Director of the Center on Aging at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He will forever be remembered for his excellence in research, teaching, patient care, and administration.
2024 Recipient: The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has been named the recipient of the 2024 David H. Solomon Memorial Public Service Award for being a leader of the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement – which now includes almost 4,000 sites recognized by IHI for providing 4Ms (What Matters, Medication, Mentation, Mobility) care to over 3 million older adults.
“More than 3 million older adults have been reached with 4Ms care because of the work that IHI has been doing to improve the care of older adults equitably through the Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative,” said AGS President Donna Fick, PhD, RN, GCNS-BC, AGSF, FGSA, FAAN. “This work is very much aligned with Dr. Solomon’s life-long commitment to improving quality care for all of us as we age, and I could think of no individual or group more deserving of this award. We have been fortunate to partner with IHI on these efforts and are grateful to The John A. Hartford Foundation for its long-standing partnership with AGS and its visionary leadership of this movement.
IHI partners and collaborates with visionary leaders, organizations, and frontline practitioners worldwide to seek and achieve science-based improvements in health and health care. “I am so proud of our work in partnership with IHI to spread age-friendly care and improve outcomes for older adults worldwide,” said Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, President of The John A. Hartford Foundation. “One incredibly important example is IHI’s collaboration with the AGS and its Coordinating Center for the 48 Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Programs (GWEPs) that are funded by the Health Services and Resources Administration, which are all embedding training on the 4Ms Framework into primary care.” Because of this partnership, all GWEPs and hundreds of their partners have achieved Age-Friendly Health Systems recognition from IHI.
“We are humbled and honored by this recognition of the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative, which has become one of the most dynamic programs we have ever worked on as an organization,” said Kedar Mate, MD, President and CEO of IHI. “The values that Dr. Solomon embodied are exceptional, and we aspire to those every day in our work on Age-Friendly and across all areas of our organization. AGS has been an instrumental partner in this work, and we look forward to our ongoing partnership to keep up the momentum on the growing adoption of age-friendly care worldwide.”
Past Recipients of the David H. Solomon Memorial Public Service Award
2023 Alan Lazaroff, MD, AGSF
2022 West Health
2019 Arti Hurria, MD
2018 John R. Burton, MD, AGSF
George W. Drach, MD, AGSF
2017 Barbara Resnick, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, FAANP, AGSF
2016 Thomas T. Yoshikawa, MD, AGSF
2015 Jennie Chin Hansen, RN, MSN, FAAN
2014 Corinne H. Rieder, EdD
2013 Joanne G. Schwartzberg, MD
2011 Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI)
2010 Meghan Gerety, MD
2008 William D. Novelli
2007 Nora Gibson, MSW
2006 Donna I. Regenstreif, PhD
2005 Charlotte Maguire, MD
2004 Donald W. Reynolds Foundation
2003 The John A. Hartford Foundation
2002 Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev)