Twenty Years of Leadership
In 2006 the Alliance celebrated its 20th anniversary. During its first two decades, the Alliance has played a leadership role in advancing the science of aging, educating consumers and health care professionals about healthy aging, and advocating public policies that promote aging research and quality of life for older Americans.
Milestones
1986
Alliance for Aging Research is launched.
1987
The Alliance plays host to an international conference on Capitol Hill titled “The Promise of Productive Aging: The Future for the U.S. and Japan.”
1988
The Alliance organizes more than 50 disease-specific groups to challenge Congress to increase federal funding for aging-related health research to $1 billion.
1989
The Alliance hosts the largest public gathering to date to consider potential medical and health benefits of sequencing the human genome; featuring pioneering scientists: James Watson, Leroy Hood and Thomas Caskey.
The Alliance testifies to a Senate Committee that federal efforts to understand genetic basis of age-associated diseases could increase healthy aging and moderate health care spending for older Americans.
1992
Alliance helps develop hearings of the House Select Committee on Aging on shortfall of geriatric training in U.S. medical schools and cost effective benefits of aging research.
1993
Alliance and NIA release initial results of National Health and Retirement Survey regarding health and economic status of older Americans.
1994
The Alliance launches a nationwide campaign to build awareness about causes and new treatments for congestive heart failure, the leading cause of hospitalization among the elderly
1995
White House Conference on Aging adopts a resolution championed by the Alliance to make federal funding for aging research equal to 1% of federal health care expenditures for older Americans. Alliance and American Federal for Aging Research (AFAR) produce Putting Aging on Hold: Delaying the Diseases of Aging and distribute to delegates at the conference.
1996
The Alliance launches a three-year national high blood pressure education campaign aimed at older women.
“Seven Deadly Myths: Uncovering the Facts about High Costs of the Last Year of Life” is released by the Alliance to correct misunderstandings about end of life care of older people.
1997
The Alliance begins its “Increasing Public Awareness about Age-Related Macular Degeneration” program.
1998
Senators Connie Mack (R-FL) and John Glenn (D-OH) are honored for their contributions to science and healthy aging at the Alliance’s annual Bipartisan Congressional Awards Dinner.
1999
Senators Chuck Grassley and John Breaux of the Senate Special Committee on Aging help the Alliance call attention to its latest study of the hidden costs to U.S. health care that stem from loss of independence among older Americans.
Alliance helps launch the Patients’ Coalition for urgent Research (Patients’ CURe) to highlight the stake of people with life-threatening diseases to speak out for public funding and accountability for human embryonic stem cell research.
2000
Alliance convenes a symposium on Capitol Hill to explore possibilities of broader coverage of prescription drugs under Medicare; report is produced in cooperation with the Senate Special Committee on Aging.
2001
Interactive and innovative web module, Genetics in Aging, is launched on Alliance web site: www.agingresearch.org.
2003
In partnership with the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Roll Call editor, Mort Kondracke, the Alliance launches its SAGE Crossroads program to facilitate the live and on-line (www.sagecrossroads.net) exchange between aging experts around issues of aging research and public policy.
2004
Alliance Executive Director, Daniel Perry, begins his service as President of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR), a coalition leading the efforts to advance research and technologies in regenerative medicine, including stem cell research and somatic cell nuclear transfer, in order to cure disease and alleviate suffering.
2005
The Alliance supplies the 2005 White House Conference on Aging with white papers on aging related research and on geriatric training/workforce issues. The Alliance succeeds in getting delegates of the White House Conference on Aging to adopt aging research as one of its Top 50 priorities for implementation by the White House policy committee.
Friends of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) established and chaired by Daniel Perry, in order to advocate for NIA and increase visibility of their research.
2006
ACT-AD coalition launched to accelerate the development of cure and treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. The coalition is dedicated to increasing public and government recognition that Alzheimer’s is a life-threatening disease that requires urgent attention. The coalition is chaired by Alliance Executive Director Daniel Perry.
The Alliance releases The Silver Book: Chronic Disease and Medical Innovation in an Aging Nation, an online almanac, along with the results of a national survey on the public’s knowledge of chronic disease, at a press conference.