The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry is holding its 23rd Annual Meeting in Savannah, GA, March 5–8, 2010.

>> Online Abstract Submission Form.

The deadline for regular poster submissions is October 2 and the deadline for Early Investigator poster submissions is October 16. You will be notified no later than December 1 of whether your poster had been selected for presentation.

If you are interested in developing an industry supported symposium (ISS) for the 2010 Annual Meeting, please contact Chris deVries at cdevries@aagponline.org.

If you have any questions about submitting an abstract, please contact AAGP (301) 654-7850 ext. 100 or e-mail main@aagponline.org.

DEADLINES

General Sessions: June 5, 2009
Industry-Supported Symposia: Open until filled
Posters: October 2, 2009
Early Investigator Posters: October 16, 2009

To download a pdf of the Call for Presentations, click here.

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

AAGP's Mission Statement

The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) is a national association representing and serving its members and the field of geriatric psychiatry. It is dedicated to promoting the mental health and well being of older people and improving the care of those with late-life mental disorders. AAGP's mission is to enhance the knowledge base and standard of practice in geriatric psychiatry through education and research and to advocate for meeting the mental health needs of older Americans.

Invitation to Submit Proposals

Dear Colleagues:

The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry Annual Meeting Program Committee invites you to submit a proposal for consideration at the 2010 meeting to be held in Savannah, Georgia, March 5–8. The AAGP 2010 conference theme will be "A Mile in My Shoes: Finding Comprehensive Solutions to the Problems of Aging."

There are many venues at the AAGP Annual Meeting that invite innovative and interactive programs targeted towards clinicians, researchers, and educators. Clinicians and investigators in all arenas of geriatric psychiatry, psychology, neurology, medicine, nursing, social work, and other related disciplines are encouraged to submit abstracts of original work for presentation at the AAGP Annual Meeting. All submissions will be peer-reviewed by the Annual Meeting Program Committee.

Suggested topics include:

• Strategies to enhance successful living in the face of medical comorbidity
• Approaches to prevent or reduce cognitive decline in aging
• Late-life decision making, advance directives and end-of-life care
• Biological and psychosocial changes with aging
• Cohort changes relevant to a new generation of older adults
• New pharmacotherapies and management strategies for age-related diseases
• Novel interdisciplinary team models for the treatment of the elderly
• Unique psychosocial and care needs of racial and ethnic minority elderly
• Understanding cultural diversity and interactions of disease with cultural environment
• Managing late-life substance abuse disorders and medical comorbidity with lifelong abuse
• Psychiatric manifestations of medical diseases, delirium
• Neuroimaging of late-life mental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases
• Family and caregiver issues related to aging and complex medical problems
• Psychopharmacology, medication interactions and complications in late life
• Age-related changes in pharmacologic response, vulnerability to adverse outcomes
• Disease management interventions and their impact on quality of life
• Complementary treatment approaches and psychosocial interventions
• Public policy and regulatory initiatives impacting aging and mental health
• Educational initiatives regarding aging, mental health and medical comorbidity

Many people who attend the AAGP Annual Meeting do not attend any other scientific meeting. This is an important venue to present original research, new data, exciting clinical applications, service delivery initiatives, educational activities, and other pioneering work impacting our field today.

If you have any questions about how or what to submit, please feel free to contact me, a member of the Annual Meeting Program Committee, or a member of the AAGP staff. I look forward to seeing you in Savannah!

Susan K. Schultz, MD
2010 AAGP Annual Meeting Program Chair
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa

GUIDELINES

Registration and Travel Policy
All presenters must be paid registrants of the AAGP Annual Meeting. Expenses associated with the preparation, submission, and presentation of an abstract are the responsibility of the author/presenter. All speakers and presenters are expected to make their own travel arrangements and pay their own expenses (with the exception of industry-supported symposia and sponsored workshop programs).

Responsibilities of the Program Faculty

Session Chair

• Collect from faculty all session information necessary to submit presentation online, as well as execute the online submission process.
• Serve as the contact person for the program committee should questions arise regarding the session.
• Work with the speakers to refine individual presentations to ensure that all presentations are well-rounded and free from commercial bias.

• Work with the session chair regarding abstract and session preparation.
• Send all information necessary to submit presentation online to the session chair (as outlined in the abstract submission guidelines).

Powerpoint Slides

AAGP strongly encourages all speakers to provide PowerPoint slides to accompany their oral presentation. AAGP will make these slides available to the 2010 Annual Meeting attendees via the AAGP meeting website prior to the meeting. This ensures that all participants will receive your materials, even those who are unable to attend your session. All materials must be submitted to AAGP by January 10, 2010. Absence of a handout makes the speaker and AAGP appear unprepared, so please send us your materials by the deadline. If you submit copyrighted material, inclusion in the syllabus will be contingent upon receipt of proof of permission to duplicate from the publisher. The speaker is responsible for obtaining this permission.

Disclosure of Conflict of Interest

The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry requires disclosure by presenters at CME activities of any significant financial interest or other affiliation with commercial organization(s) that may have a direct or indirect impact on the subject matter of the scientific program. AAGP's policy on disclosure applies to financial interests of a presenter's spouse/partner as well. A "financial interest" may include, but is not limited to, being a shareholder in the organization; being on retainer with the organization; or having research or honoraria paid by the organization. An "affiliation" may include holding a position on an advisory committee or some other role or benefit to a supporting organization. The existence of such relationships does not necessarily constitute a conflict of interest, but the prospective audience must be informed of the presenter's affiliation with every commercial supporter by an acknowledgment in the slides as well as orally at the start of every session. This policy is intended to openly identify any potential conflict(s) so that members of the audience in an educational activity are able to form their own judgments about the presentation. AAGP also requires oral disclosure of discussion of unapproved uses of a commercial product or investigational use of a product not yet approved for this purpose.

Eligibility

You do not need to be a member of AAGP to submit an abstract. Abstracts will not be considered for presentation if they are expected to be published in a scientific journal before February 16, 2010.

Limit on Presentations

A speaker's name may be submitted for multiple sessions. However, if all of the proposed sessions are accepted, any speaker at the AAGP Annual Meeting is limited to participating only in three educational programs (not including industry-supported symposia). If a speaker is listed as faculty on more than three programs, the speaker will be asked to find an appropriate substitute for one of the programs. This policy does not apply to scientific poster presentations. If a speaker is on more than one industry-supported symposium, they may only receive a travel stipend and an honorarium for one sponsored session. Furthermore, a speaker may only chair one symposium or session at the AAGP Annual Meeting.

Instructions

All session abstracts must be submitted online, beginning on April 15, 2009.

Word Limit.
All abstracts have a 3,000 character limit, excluding title and author information but including spaces.

Submission Deadline.
You may save and edit your submission at any time prior to submitting it to AAGP. The deadline for all session abstracts is June 5, 2009, 11:59 PM EDT. The deadline for poster abstracts is October 2, 2009, 11:59 PM EDT, except for early investigator posters for which the deadline is October 16, 2009, 11:59 PM EDT. Industry supported symposia will be accepted until all slots are filled.

Review.
All session abstracts are reviewed by the AAGP Annual Meeting Program Committee and ranked on the basis of scientific merit and educational need of AAGP attendees. All accepted session and poster abstracts will be published and distributed to all meeting attendees in a supplement to the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

The Annual Meeting Program Committee's decisions are final. Review is based on the following criteria:

• Relevance to identified attendee needs
• Inclusion of new data
• Timeliness of topic
• Diversity among presenters
• Presentation balance between research and practice applications
• Applicability to practice of geriatric psychiatry
• Relationship to the annual meeting theme

Abstract Submission Instructions

Content Areas

The AAGP Annual Meeting provides educational opportunities for a diverse audience. In order to accommodate the wide-ranging spectrum of educational needs for those who provide mental health services for the elderly, the program committee makes every effort to create a balanced educational experience. To that end, the following categories are suggested as broad content guidelines.

Content areas include, but are not limited to:

• Strategies to enhance successful living in the face of medical comorbidity
• Approaches to prevent or reduce cognitive decline in aging
• Late-life decision making, advance directives and end-of-life care
• Biological and psychosocial changes with aging
• Cohort changes relevant to a new generation of older adults
• New pharmacotherapies and management strategies for age-related diseases
• Novel interdisciplinary team models for the treatment of the elderly
• Unique psychosocial and care needs of racial and ethnic minority elderly
• Understanding cultural diversity and interactions of disease with cultural environment ' Managing late-life substance abuse disorders and medical comorbidity with lifelong abuse
• Psychiatric manifestations of medical diseases, delirium
• Neuroimaging of late-life mental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases
• Family and caregiver issues related to aging and complex medical problems.
• Psychopharmacology, medication interactions and complications in late life
• Age-related changes in pharmacologic response, vulnerability to adverse outcomes
• Disease management interventions and their impact on quality of life
• Complementary treatment approaches and psychosocial interventions
• Public policy and regulatory initiatives impacting aging and mental health
• Educational initiatives regarding aging, mental health and medical comorbidity

Sessions
Each session may have no more than 4 presenters, including the chair and discussants. Each session will be 90 minutes, with at least 20 minutes committed to audience participation. Please note that given the time period, fewer speakers will lead to a more in-depth presentation. Over the past several years, sessions have included case presentation discussions, interactive audience response, debates, and traditional lectures. AAGP encourages innovative educational programming that promotes clinical application of best practices and treatment for the elderly.

Abstract submission should be completed by one person—either the chair or a designated individual. Please make sure to submit all of the information requested for each of the presenters.

In order to submit, that individual will need to have:

• Needs assessment (500 characters including spaces)
• Overall session title
• Overall session abstract
• Overall session description (limit of 500 characters including spaces to be used in advance promotional material and Abstract Supplement of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry)
• Overall session learning objectives
• Order of Presentations
• Contact information for EACH presenter and the chair:
• Name and degree(s)
• Title (e.g., Department Chair, Associate Professor, etc.)
• Department (if applicable)
• Institution/organization
• Address
• City/State/Zip
• Phone
• Fax
• E-mail

Industry Supported Symposia
Industry-supported symposia include a meal function and are supported through educational grants. Symposia will include 30 minutes for meal service before the program starts and 90 minutes for program presentations with at least 20 minutes dedicated to a question and answer period. Each symposium may have no more than 4 presenters, including the chair and discussants. There is a rolling admission deadline for industry supported symposia until all the limited slots are filled. The first review of the proposed programs will be in early July, so submission of proposals by June 5, 2009 is optimal for early decisions and first choice of time slots. The educational grant provided to AAGP includes:

• AAGP CME accreditation
• Speaker travel (travel and room/board)
• Speaker honoraria
• Meal function
• Room rental
• Basic audiovisual
• Ad placements in both the Annual Meeting Advance and Final Programs
• Three complimentary meeting registrations for supporting company
• Meeting logistics

• Supporting company name and contact information (if grant support has already been secured)
• Company contact person
• Address
• Telephone
• Fax
• E-mail
• Medical communications company name and contact information (if applicable):
• Company contact person
• Address
• Telephone
• Fax
• E-mail
• Breakfast or Lunch preference

Please note that proposals for industry-supported symposia should not be submitted via the online abstract submission site. If you wish to propose an industry-supported symposia program, please contact Marjorie Vanderbilt at mvanderbilt@aagponline.org or 301-654-7850 ext. 107.

New Research Posters
Posters are self-explanatory visual presentations of research work. The presenter is required to be present during specified poster session hours for informal discussions about their research with meeting attendees. Posters will be attached to a bulletin board that measures 45" (vertical) by 90" (horizontal).

AAGP will not edit poster abstracts, so please ensure that the written submission is in final form.

In order to submit, you will need to have:

• Contact information for presenter:
• Name and degree(s)
• Title (e.g., Department Chair, Associate Professor, etc.)
• Department (if applicable)
• Institution/Organization
• Address
• City/State/Zip
• Phone
• Fax
• E-mail
• Funding: If your poster has received financial support, you must list the funding source on your online submission and/or your poster.
• Abstract (as well as names, degrees, and institutions of all co-authors). AAGP will not edit abstracts, so please submit it in final form.
• Disclosure of conflict of interest for presenting author
• If there is a medical communications company coordinating your poster submission, please include that information in the appropriate section.

Please note that the use of trade names of pharmacologic agents in the abstract title or the abstract itself is prohibited. Abstracts will not be considered for presentation if they are expected to be published in a scientific journal before February 16, 2010. Abstracts will be published in AAGP's journal, the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, and distributed to attendees on-site. Abstracts cannot be pulled from publication after December 3, 2009.

Early Investigator Posters
This special section is designed to highlight the research of residents, medical students, research or clinical fellows, or junior faculty (less than 2 years). If you wish to be considered in this special category, please mark the early investigator box when submitting your abstract online. Please note that early investigator posters will be in a separate poster session time period from the other New Research posters.

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