2024 AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY
ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING
May 8– May 11, 2024
Virtual
The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) Annual Scientific Meeting Program Committee is pleased to announce the 2024 Virtual Annual Meeting "Call for Program Proposals." We will be accepting proposal submissions on our online submission site. All proposals must be submitted online - hard copy proposal submission will not be accepted. The proposal submission deadline is June 30, 2023 at 11:59 PM Eastern time.
The AGS Meeting brings together health care professionals from multiple disciplines, with the common objective of disseminating the most up-to-date information on the special health care needs of older people. The annual meeting addresses clinical, research, ethical, academic, and public policy issues pertinent to geriatrics. In order to continue to present a current and appealing program of high quality and strong educational benefit, we need to concentrate on new areas in geriatrics, as well as on new findings on topics we have explored in the past.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
In response to the ethical and scientific imperatives of inclusivity in research and in an effort to mitigate disparities in research participation and health, AGS has set a ten-year goal to ensure that all human subject research presented at the annual meeting takes into account factors that may present vulnerability to exclusion and disparity. These factors include, but are not necessarily limited to, self-identified race/ethnicity, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, English-language ability, and immigration status. While heterogeneity within and across these sub-groups is substantial, they are commonly referred to as “underrepresented, disproportionately affected, and understudied” populations. Presentations address health equity and disparities where relevant. In any sessions that present clinical data, at least one presenter should include a discussion of diversity in the study with a focus on race, ethnicity, and age. The AGS also strongly encourages inclusion of presenters who reflect the diversity of the AGS membership.
Proposals containing clinical recommendations must be based on evidence that is accepted within the profession of medicine as adequate justification for their use. All scientific research referred to, reported or used in support or justification of a patient care recommendation must conform to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection and analysis.
Geriatrics care is interprofessional. Interprofessional continuing education (IPCE) occurs when members from two or more professions learn with, from, and about each other to enable effective interprofessional collaborative practice and improve health outcomes. The AGS strongly encourages program proposals that focus on interprofessional issues in geriatrics and that involve speakers from multiple disciplines.
MODERATORS
The moderator designated on the proposal form must be a current AGS member and must have been a member for at least 1 year. Moderators will be responsible for organizing the accepted programs and for resolving any conflicts of interest that speakers on their session may have. This typically involves reviewing the slides and handout material of any speaker with a conflict to ensure that the content is well-rounded and free from bias. If the moderator of a session has a conflict of interest with the overall subject matter that will be discussed during the symposium that he/she is moderating, then a "content moderator" will be assigned to the session and will be charged with resolving any moderator or speaker conflicts of interest prior to the meeting.
FORMAT
Educational sessions are 60 minutes in length and may be in the format of symposia, meet-the-experts, or pre-conference sessions (see descriptions below). However, AGS members, Committees and Special Interest Groups are encouraged to recommend new and innovative formats such as point-counterpoint presentations, etc. As relevant to the topic of the session being proposed, we require that at least one presenter address health equity and disparities in their presentation. All sessions will be pre-recorded. Presenters must attend their session during it’s scheduled streaming time to answer questions from attendees using Chat Feature. Information on how to record and submit a presentation will be shared in our acceptance notices.
Symposia: A symposium should have NO more than 3 speakers. Topics should be relevant to a broad segment of annual meeting attendees. When inviting presenters, moderators should consider interprofessional, institutional, geographic, gender, and racial/ethnic diversity.
Workshops: Interactive workshop sessions are difficult to conduct via our virtual annual meeting platform. However, we are accepting proposals for interactive workshops that we will offer throughout the year and have created a simplified form to submit topics for these webinars.
Meet-the-Experts: A meet-the-expert session allows attendees to learn about important topics in geriatrics with an "expert." Examples of meet-the-expert sessions are our coding workshops with Pete Hollmann.
Pre-conference sessions: These sessions are typically 4½ hour expanded sessions that cover current topics that impact how we care for the older adult population. Attendees pay an additional fee to attend these sessions on the day before the official start of the meeting. In 2024 pre-conference session will be held on Zoom.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
If this proposal is being submitted on behalf of an AGS Committee, Special Interest Group, or the Council of State Affiliate Representatives, it should be reviewed and approved by the relevant group before submission to the program committee.
REVIEW PROCESS
A volunteer committee of AGS members will review and rate proposals. The Annual Scientific Meeting Program Committee the most highly rated proposals and incorporate any recommendations from reviewers into feedback provided on accepted symposia. Because of space limitations, only a limited number of proposals will be accepted. You will be notified in late August or early September whether or not your proposal has been accepted. As noted above, the Program Committee reserves the right to modify accepted sessions.
AGS SPEAKER REIMBURSEMENT POLICY
AGS does not pay travel expenses or waive registration fees for AGS member moderators/speakers who agree to participate in the Annual Meeting.