IVth
Congress of The
International Association
of Gerontology

14-17 June 1998

in Marina Congress Center
Helsinki, Finland


INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GERONTOLOGY
EUROPEAN REGION CLINICAL SELECTION

The main theme of the congress will be "Evidence-Based Medicine in the Elderly". Evidence based medicine is the deliberate use of the best current evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence-based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external scientific evidence. How much evidence-based knowledge is there on the medical care of elderly? The answer is still "too little".

The amount of geriatric research has grown enormously in the past ten years. We have received a deal of data from epidemiological studies, which offer much information on the problems of geriatric care, but seldom furnish solutions. There are actually quite a few randomised, controlled trials on the therapy of the most common medical problems of the elderly. Only from the late 1980's have some international trials also included elderly people. For example, the trials of therapy of myocardial infarction have given quite surprising results: effectiveness of the therapy is most marked for those whose risk of dying is the greatest. Still, with good external evidence we face this question in everyday practice: "Can this evidence from trials on selected patients be applied to my individual patient with many illnesses?".

In June 1998 in Helsinki, we shall discuss the most recent advances in geriatric medicine. What is evidence-based medicine for the elderly? Can the results of studies be applied to the care of our patients? Welcome to summery Helsinki to discuss these questions and critically appraise the best studies done on different aspects on geriatric medicine The IVth international Congress of Cerontology, European Region, Clinical Section is designed to promote undenstanding of evidence-based medicine and its suitability for our elderly patients

On behalf of the Organizing Committee

Reijo Tilvis Professor of Geriatrics Chairman of the Organizing Committee

Timo Strandberg Associate Professor General Secretary