President’s Message
Hello Colleagues,
In my first message for 2022, the year has well and truly begun, and it is shaping up to be another busy period of progress for the Society that we hope will have meaningful benefits for geriatricians across Australia and New Zealand and for the older community we all support.
Our ANZSGM Strategic Plan developed at the end of 2021 is serving as a roadmap for our upcoming activities. One of its most important pillars is the engagement of members. I am always happy to hear your thoughts on how we can best serve and benefit geriatricians, please feel free to contact me directly if you would like to share your ideas.
I’d like to draw your attention to a 2019 report by the Melbourne Institute looking at the current trends in the medical practitioner workforce using APHRA registration data. Geriatric medicine was one of the fastest growing specialities between 2011-12 and 2016-17. This is a reflection of the “blood, sweat and tears” of heads of departments and geriatrician leaders in health districts who have been successful in growing their services. In addition, these trends are explained by the work done at a state level to attract physician trainees, in particular Benny Katz who built up the Victorian Training Scheme. It is timely to acknowledge the work of Melbourne Geriatrician and former Council Member Mike Dorevitch and others who led the drive for recognition of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment as one of the key interventions for improving the health of older people. The report is also a pleasing reminder of the important policy influence our Council can achieve through consistent and ongoing engagement with Government and other stakeholders.
Based on the success of the Perioperative Special Interest Group (SIG), we are now planning the launch of a second SIG focusing on Out of Hospital Care. We hope that the SIG will provide a forum to share and develop models of care that deliver geriatric medical services to older people living in residential care and in their homes. Discussions are now underway with the Department of Health about how we can advance the recommendations of the Royal Commission around outreach services and the future of Aged Care Assessment Teams. I would encourage all those interested in these areas to respond to the expression of interest and join the group.
2022 marks ANZSGM’s Golden Jubilee recognising the 50th Anniversary of the Society. This milestone is an opportunity to reflect upon our achievements and the members who have helped shape our work. I thank long time member Robert Prowse whose knowledge and curiosity around ANZSGM’s past has led him to develop the History Project, we look forward to Robert’s presentation at the upcoming Annual Scientific Meeting.
Our ASM on 8-10 June in Perth has now moved to a fully virtual format. Despite the Western Australia border opening, COVID-19 is still placing a layer of uncertainty around the planning of the event and the organising committee made this difficult decision with a view to ensuring the conference can go ahead without last minute cancelation. I know myself and many colleagues were looking forward to connecting face-to-face, but l remain enthusiastic about the program. We will now have two international keynote speakers, Prof Matteo Cesari and Prof Bruno Vellas, in addition to our two renowned Australasian speakers, Prof Joe Ibrahim and Dr Michal Boyd.
And lastly, I offer my heartfelt congratulations to Rob O’Sullivan who has been voted the new President-Elect and I will hand the baton over to him in mid-2023. Rob has a deep understanding of how the Society works – he has been on Council since 2012 and for the past four years has served as Treasurer and is also a past Treasurer and Secretary of the Queensland Division. I welcome his experience and insights and look forward to working with him more closely in the coming months and years.
Vasi Naganathan
