Introduction for the 2024 Chinese Congress on Gerontology and Health Industry (CCGI) Abstracts

Abstract

It is once again with great pleasure that we introduce the research work to be presented at the 2024 Chinese Congress on Gerontology and Health Industry (CCGI), which is published in abstract form in this issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS). The 2024 CCGI conference is the continuation of the annual national geriatrics and gerontology conference co-organized and co-sponsored by a number of major Chinese professional healthcare organizations including the Chinese Medical Association (CMA) Geriatrics Branch and China Health Promotion Foundation. This year's CCGI conference will be held on November 1–3. 2024 in the city of Haikou, China's island province Hainan. We have 115 quality abstracts to be included in this issue.

While COVID-19 pandemic is largely behind us, its impact on world economy and scientific conferences continues to be palpable. The current economic downturn and overseas regional conflicts create additional challenges. Despite these difficulties, the 2024 CCGI conference will be held in person and the research work to be presented at the conference is as robust as that presented at previous years' CCGI conferences. Similar to the previous 11 years, the work to be presented at this year's CCGI conference encompasses many important areas of geriatrics and gerontology, from basic aging research to geriatric syndromes; from clinical observation and large epidemiological studies to clinical trials; and from biological investigations to social and behavioral research. Unique to this year, it emphasizes palliative care, cardiovascular aging and diseases, systems approach for senior health, as well as socioeconomic determinants of aging care. It also includes a broad range of studies of basic and translational aging research, such as investigation into chronic cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection as a potential contributing factor to immunosenescence and age-related chronic inflammation, longitudinal cohort studies, mechanistic studies in animal models, and other types of studies including clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of common geriatric syndromes and age-related diseases. Moreover, almost 20% of the abstracts are submitted by researchers from other countries and regions including the United States, European countries (Germany, UK), South Korea, Macao, etc., demonstrating a robust international representation. The work described here will be presented in the form of oral presentation or poster at the conference. The conference will have similar number of symposia with individual symposium on translational aging research, common geriatric syndromes, prevention, rehabilitation, nutrition, geriatric nursing, traditional Chinese medicine, community geriatrics care, and long-term care, and so on. Publication of such exemplary work in geriatrics and gerontology in this supplement issue of JAGS will further enhance scientific and scholarly exchanges between colleagues in China and geriatrics and gerontology communities in the United States and around the world. To this end, we would like to thank again the leadership of the JAGS, particularly Dr. Joseph Ouslander, the current Editor-in-Chief, Mrs. Nancy Lundebjerg, CEO of the American Geriatrics Society, and Mr. Kurt Polesky at Wiley for their support and effort in making this a success.

As pointed out in the previous JAGS CCGI conference supplement issues,^1-8 China has the largest aging population in the world. The development of quality geriatrics care and aging research is a national priority of China. While the requirement of geriatrics care services at all general hospitals has already been established by the national healthcare policy, the urgent demand for geriatrics workforce development remains to be unprecedented. To address this insurmountable demand, members of the CMA Geriatrics Branch who completed the national advanced training courses in 2015 and 2016 continue their efforts on geriatrics training through continuing medical education (CME) and other mechanisms across China. The Peking Union Medical College Hospital—Johns Hopkins geriatrics symposium which has continued annually since 2011 has also had and will continue to serve as a prominent geriatrics training platform. However, the winding road of geriatrics development in China will be long and much work is still waiting ahead. Current effort is dedicated to the development of quality geriatrics clinical and education programs as well as advancement of clinical and translational aging research. International scholarly exchange and collaboration are critically important as catalysts for geriatrics development in China but challenging, especially in the current political environment. US medical philanthropy such as Milstein Medical Asian American Partnership (MMAAP) Foundation under the Irma and Paul Milstein Program for Senior Health that has had and will continue to provide private funding to support clinical and research programs in China can serve as such a catalyst. Again, JAGS has led the effort through publishing Special Articles of its kind^9-11 over the years, introducing aging demographics and recent geriatrics development in China to the colleagues in the US and around the world. Recognizing the need for other support services and products for seniors in addition to healthcare, the CCGI conference has also organized a large exhibition of qualified senior services programs, equipment, assistive devices, and other related products by healthcare industry, both domestic and international. Therefore, this year's CCGI conference continues to serve as an important platform and useful networking for not only scientific and scholarly exchange, but also potential development of partnerships and collaborations in senior healthcare and healthcare industry. This is particularly important and timely as China just announced its policy earlier this year that allows entities from other countries to develop, manage and own healthcare operations in China. To encourage and welcome participation of members of the American Geriatrics Society and Gerontological Society of America as well as researchers from other countries in addition to the US, the conference has established an international symposium. The CCGI Organizing Committee will continue its policy of waiving conference registration fee and covering conference-related travel expenses in China (i.e., hotel stay and meals during the conference) for them.

As we did in the previous JAGS CCGI conference supplement issues, we acknowledge the challenges for continuing such an international effort. Once again, kudos to the leadership of CMA Geriatrics Branch and the CCGI Organizing Committee on securing the funding, soliciting submission of quality abstracts for a relatively new but rising discipline in China, and conducting vigorous scientific peer review. Despite our experience from the previous CCGI conferences and our best effort to review and edit, some abstracts, in their translation into English, inevitably contain language errors. As such, we would like to ask for our readers' understanding of any oversight. We would also like to ask for feedback so that we can make further improvements in the future. To that end, we would like to thank everyone who is involved in this important work, both in China and in the United States. Once again, we wish the 2024 CCGI conference a great success!