Our Mission:
Improving the well-being of America’s older adults by increasing specialty physicians’ competence in geriatrics (the unique health care we all need as we age).
Our Goals:
Since launching in 1994, we have worked across healthcare to:
- Identify and support specialty faculty in promoting geriatrics training and research within their own professional disciplines.
- Assist professional certifying bodies and professional societies in improving care for older adults beyond geriatrics.
- Enhance the geriatrics knowledge and expertise of practicing surgeons and medical specialists through continuing medical education, maintenance of certification programs, and the development of quality measures that help to improve care for older adults.
- Improve the amount and quality of geriatrics education received by specialist trainees.
- Create an independent, sustainable collaboration which empowers participating societies and their respective training and certification programs to carry out the GSI’s mission and goals.
Council:
There are currently twelve participating specialties in the GSI. The GSI is governed by the specialty council comprised of appointed society representatives, and alternate members, from each participating specialty. In addition, geriatrician Deputy Directors work closely with the participating specialists and the organizations they represent. The council meets annually at the AGS Annual Scientific Meeting.
Medical and Surgical Specialty Section:
The Medical and Surgical Specialty Section (MSSS) is a new section of AGS for all specialists interested in the care of older adults. In 2020, the Section for Enhancing Geriatric Understanding and Expertise among Surgical and Medical Specialists (SEGUE) and the Medical Specialties Section (MSS) decided to join together and combine efforts moving forward.
Through this newly combined section, medical and surgical subspecialists will share updates on activities and career development opportunities within their disciplines, showcasing opportunities for specialists to advance a geriatrics agenda within their specialty societies and their institutions.
The MSSS meets annually at the AGS Annual Scientific Meeting.
History
SEGUE, formed in 2001, focused on creating geriatrics champions within surgical specialties, developing curricular materials, and clinical and best-practice guidelines intended to improve care of older people.
A 2017 article published in JAGS, Geriatrics‐for‐Specialists Initiative: An Eleven‐Specialty Collaboration to Improve Care of Older Adults, highlights the history of this important initiative.
The MSS was developed in 2002 by the Association of Specialty Professors’ project “Integrating Geriatrics into the Specialties of Internal Medicine: Moving Forward from Awareness to Action,” funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies, Inc.