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2012 MetLife Foundation Silver Scholar Award Goes to Dr. Linda Fried

June 25, 2012   |   Alliance for Aging Research Team   |   Aging Research, Silver Book, Healthy Aging

We are very excited at the Alliance for Aging Research to announce that Linda Fried, MD, MPH, Dean of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, is the recipient of this year’s MetLife Foundation Silver Scholar Award. Dr. Fried is a well-respected and well-known scholar and was selected in honor of her innovative work contributing pragmatic solutions to address the rising cost of health care associated with the aging of our nation, preventive strategies aimed at keeping aging populations healthier longer, and thought leadership on the positive contributions that greater longevity brings to society.

This important award came about as we sifted through countless journals, reports, and websites to cull out the 1,000s of statistics that make up The Silver Book: Chronic Disease and Medical Innovation. These statistics highlight the growing burden of chronic disease and make the case for innovation in mitigating that burden, but what they don’t often do well is really value healthy life after 65.

A critical component of health economics is the cost-effectiveness analysis which looks at things like life-years gained, lost workdays avoided, unused health services, etc.—in order to place a value on a technology, treatment, or other innovation. Unfortunately, the accepted methods of doing this often fail to take into account the fairly new phenomenon of active aging—exploring new careers, supporting families, continuing to contribute to society, etc. This award was created to recognize and encourage the work of scholars who are increasing our understanding of the value of healthy life after 65 and the innovations that help us live longer in good health.

Dr. Linda Fried was chosen from a pool of highly accomplished nominees whose scholarship offers critical insights at the important juncture of aging, health care, and economics As part of the terms of the award, Dr. Fried will write a review or analysis of her work which considers both the costs and potential opportunities that result from longer life, and looks beyond current policy prescriptions for answers to the challenges posed by our aging society. She will receive a cash award of $75,000 to further her research in the field of healthy aging and to support the writing of her paper.

We look forward to sharing this paper, as well as the much-anticipated paper from our year 1 scholars–Drs Dana Goldman and David Cutler—expected out in the next few months. To learn more visit the Alliance’s Silver Scholar pages.

The award is administered by the Alliance for Aging Research and supported by MetLife Foundation.

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