The research agenda-setting project (RASP)

In 2001, the John A. Hartford Foundation and the American Geriatrics Society set out to publish in a book format a research agenda-setting process (RASP) to achieve the following goals: (1) to increase research activity in the field of geriatrics within specific surgical and related medical specialties; (2) to attract new specialty researchers to study and subsequently meet the unique needs and requirements of the older patient in these specific surgical and related medical specialties; (3) to increase the number and quality of age-related research grant applications (e.g., National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other agencies); and (4) to improve the well-being of older patients in specialty care. The process involved the selection of faculty members from each specialty to serve as content experts and writers and to review and eventually to update the present status of research on the geriatrics aspects within their respective specialties.