Download the 2008 Hartford Annual Report pdf

A Call For Leadership in Aging

Introduction

The American health care system is at a crossroads. Health care costs continue to rise, the population of older adults continues to grow, the health care workforce receives little training in geriatrics, chronic diseases such as diabetes are becoming more common, and systems of care are often inefficient and not well-coordinated.

Staying the course is not an option. Fundamental reforms to the delivery of health care must take place. Transforming the health care system requires innovative leadership in education, research, clinical practice, and policy. To ensure the needs of older adults are clearly represented in the national conversation, health professionals who specialize in aging must have a voice. But the field of geriatrics does not yet exert sufficient influence.

Through its leadership initiatives, the John A. Hartford Foundation is addressing the critical need to cultivate leaders in nursing, social work, and medicine ready to take up these challenges—leaders like Dr. Marie Bernard.


Next: Profile in Leadership
Rising to the Leadership Challenge
Marie A. Bernard, MD
Deputy Director, National Institute on Aging ›