Expanding Age-Friendly Approaches to Specialty Ambulatory Care
Expanding Age-Friendly Approaches to Specialty Ambulatory Care is a grant-funded project by The John A. Hartford Foundation that seeks increased adoption of age-friendly care in ambulatory specialty practices—outpatient settings where many older adults receive care from specialists.
As the shift from hospitals to ambulatory care for older adults continues, there is an opportunity to incorporate evidence-based age-friendly approaches into ambulatory care. The use of the Age-Friendly Health Systems 4Ms Framework (What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility) in ambulatory specialty care settings is critical in ensuring evidence-based age-friendly care is provided to older adults, especially those with multiple chronic conditions and functional limitations.
Program Details:
In partnership with The John A. Hartford Foundation, CMSS has awarded grants to six specialty societies to advance age-friendly care in outpatient specialty and subspecialty medicine. Through these awards, each society will develop specialty-specific 4Ms implementation guidance, partnering with approximately 40 specialty practices across the six societies to integrate the 4Ms into routine outpatient practice.
In addition to the provision of awards, CMSS will serve as a coordinating center to monitor and promote cross-specialty learning, improvement, and collaboration on implementing the 4Ms. CMSS will establish and support a learning community for awardees to share what they are learning with each other. This work will be done in collaboration with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).
2026 Grant Recipients:
American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) Empowering Patients Through Age-Friendly ENT: Implementation of the 4Ms Framework The AAO-HNS will develop, disseminate, implement, and evaluate tailored age-friendly ENT tools based on the 4Ms Framework. AAO-HNS’s innovative approach engages the patient directly by linking them to resources and a pre-visit checklist, which includes such patient priorities as hearing, dizziness, and falls, for completion and use during their visit.
American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Incorporating Age-Friendly Approaches into Rheumatology Care ACR will lead a coordinated implementation initiative to develop, refine, and evaluate 4Ms workflows and tools across diverse ambulatory practices. The activities include development of a Rheumatology Age-Friendly 4Ms Implementation Guide focused on older adults with rheumatic diseases and geriatric syndromes.
American College of Surgeons (ACS) Integrating the Age-Friendly 4Ms into Ambulatory Surgery Building on their inpatient surgery experience, ACS will implement Age-Friendly 4Ms processes in ambulatory surgery through the development of foundational tools and an implementation guide that ambulatory surgical teams can use to deliver better age-friendly care for older adults undergoing ambulatory surgery.
American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Bridging Guidelines to Practice: An Age-Friendly Learning Collaborative for Geriatric Oncology ASCO will bridge the gap between geriatric oncology guidelines and real-world practice by launching a Learning Collaborative that adapts the Age-Friendly Health Systems’ 4Ms framework specifically for cancer care.
American Urological Association (AUA) Expanding Age-Friendly Approaches to Urology Care AUA’s project will facilitate implementation of the 4Ms framework and develop and disseminate urology-specific resources and educational materials aimed at older adults undergoing treatment for such conditions as prostate cancer and urinary incontinence to advance age-friendly care across diverse ambulatory urologic settings.
Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Implementation of the Evidence-Based 4Ms Framework in Vascular Ambulatory Care SVS will lead a multi-site collaborative effort to design, test, and refine a vascular-specific 4Ms implementation model that embeds these elements into clinical workflow to ensure implementation and evaluation of structured 4Ms screening for older adults living with vascular conditions and multiple chronic conditions.
Press Release:
Contact:
Sarah Imhoff, MBA, Senior Program Director
Yodit Berhan, MPH, Program Coordinator
Advisory Committee
Christina Boccuti
VP for Health SecurityAARP Health Care Strategy LeadershipCecilia Canales, MD
Assistant Professor, AnesthesiaUniversity of California Los AngelesCarolyn Clancy, MD, MACP
Assistant Under Secretary for Health, Discovery, Education & Affiliate NetworksVeterans Health AdministrationTimothy W. Farrell, MD, AGSF
Professor of Medicine, Geriatrics Division, Associate Chief for Age-Friendly CareVA Salt Lake City Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical CenterNancy Lundebjerg
Chief Executive OfficerAmerican Geriatrics SocietyKedar Mate, MD
Founder & CMO, Qualified HealthPresident Emeritus, Institute for Healthcare ImprovementCheryl Phillips, MD (ex-officio)
Senior Program ConsultantThe John A. Hartford FoundationHarold Pincus, MD
Co-Director, Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research; Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Health Policy and Management; National Program Director, Health and Aging Policy FellowshipColumbia UniversityDaisy Smith, MD, FACP
Chief Membership and Engagement OfficerAmerican College of PhysiciansNana A. Y. Twum-Danso, MD, MPH, FACPM
Chief Impact OfficerInstitute for Healthcare Improvement
Acknowledgement:
The Expanding Age-Friendly Approaches to Specialty Ambulatory Care project is supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation, as part of a financial assistance award to the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS). The John A. Hartford Foundation, based in New York City, is a private, nonpartisan, national philanthropy dedicated to improving the care of older adults. The leader in the field of aging and health, the Foundation has three areas of emphasis: creating age-friendly health systems, supporting family caregivers, and improving serious illness and end-of-life care.
