The costs of healthcare impose an enormous burden on the nation’s economy. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has projected that annual healthcare expenditures in the United States are expected to reach $3.1 trillion by 2012, growing at an average annual rate of 7.3 percent during the forecast period or 17.7 percent of gross domestic product, up from 14.1 percent in mid-2009. (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, http://cms.hhs.gov/,via http://www.ortcc.org/PDF/BenefitsofTelemedicine.pdf .)

 

Today, the climate of the practice of medicine is daunting. Mark Linzer, from the University of Wisconsin, and colleagues surveyed 422 internists and family physicians, studying patterns of dissatisfaction as a function of work environment and quality of care. The researchers found that 53.1 percent reported time pressures during the patient consult, and 48.1 percent reported chaotic working environments. Only 23.7 percent felt that quality was a strong emphasis of the patient-physician encounter. Nearly one-third of the physicians (30.1 percent) said they were likely to leave their practices within two years. (“Poor working conditions for docs may affect quality of care,” MedPage Today, 7 July 2009.)

 

The national healthcare system is crippled by burdensome regulations and paperwork, declining financial incentive for physicians, and a dominating disease-based approach. It also suffers from the demands of an ever-graying population, as the number of Americans aged 45-64 – who will reach 65 over the next two decades – increases by 38 percent. (Profile of Older Americans, http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/Aging_Statistics/Profile/2008/2.aspx .) 

 

Universally, those involved in healthcare, or those whose fields of expertise intersect with healthcare issues, support anti-aging medicine as a healthcare model promoting innovative science and research to prolong the healthy human lifespan. Public policy organizations and government agencies in a number of nations are now embracing anti-aging medicine as a viable solution to alleviate the mounting social, economic, and medical woes otherwise anticipated to arrive with the trend of unprecedented global aging.

 

Anti-aging medicine is a clinical specialty founded on the application of advanced scientific and medical technologies for the early detection, prevention, treatment, and reversal of age-related dysfunction, disorders, and diseases. It is a healthcare model promoting innovative science and research to prolong the healthy lifespan in humans. As such, anti-aging medicine is based on principles of sound and responsible medical care that are consistent with those applied in other preventive health specialties.

 

Anti-aging medicine is now practiced by thousands of physicians in private medical offices, as well as at some of the most prestigious teaching hospitals around the world. Involving a patient base in the hundreds of thousands worldwide, anti-aging medicine is achieving demonstrable and objective results that beneficially impact the degenerative diseases of aging.

 

Quite simply, anti-aging medicine is transforming healthcare, one practice at a time. Your entry into the anti-aging medical specialty starts by attending the Spring 2010 Session of the 18^th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging & Regenerative Biomedical Technologies. Taking place April 15-17, 2010 at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort & Convention Center, this scientific conference is projected to draw 3,000+ delegates and corporate leaders, unified in their quest for knowledge on topics relating to medical interventions to prevent and treat the diseases and disabilities associated with the biological process of aging. Co-sponsored by The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M; www.worldhealth.net), a non-profit medical organization dedicated to the advancement of technology to detect, prevent, and treat aging related disease and to promote research into methods to retard and optimize the human aging process, the Spring 2010 Congress Session features 90+ international presenters on topics including:

 

Special Workshops include “The Nuts and Bolts of Hormone Restoration in Men and Women” and “Stem Cell Symposium: Principles and Practice of Regenerative Medicine.”