It is once again my pleasure to introduce the annual report of the John A. Hartford Foundation. This publication features the exciting work of the Geriatric Interdisciplinary Teams in Practice initiative. Launched in 2000, this nearly $11 million investment recognizes and begins to redress the essential mismatch between our current care system, which focuses on responding to sudden illness, and the actual needs of older patients, nearly two-thirds of whom cope with two or more chronic illnesses at a time.

As research and practice has amply demonstrated, good care for these older patients
is ultimately team care, utilizing and coordinating the skills not only of doctors and nurses but also social workers, rehab professionals, dieticians, and others. The Geriatric Interdisciplinary Teams in Practice project supported the creation and careful testing of five such team care models in a variety of settings around the country. The four most promising received continued funding through a $1.1 million dissemination project at the University of Colorado. This initiative supports these model programs’ efforts to create toolkits and business plans and conduct the outreach necessary for broad adoption. Spreading these kinds of innovations through the current health care system is not easy, but we believe it is critically important to ensuring that older patients receive care in ways that respond to their unique needs.

During 2007, along with our continued support for team care, the Foundation’s Trustees approved 32 new grants worth $47 million. These represent our ongoing commitment to enhancing and expanding the training of doctors, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals who care for elders; and to promoting innovations in the integration and delivery of services for all older people.

This year in the practice arena, the Foundation expanded its interest in improving home, community-based, and primary care services with two significant grants. The first will provide $2.4 million to the Oregon Health & Science University to promote the diffusion of Care Management Plus, one of the models initially supported by the Teams in Practice initiative. This innovative primary care model combines the “high tech” of a state-of-the-art electronic health record system with the “high touch” of a specially trained care manager. The second grant approved by the Trustees, $500,000 to the AARP Foundation, seeks to build the knowledge of professional caregivers in order to better support the 33 million family caregivers of older adults. This will fund a rigorous review of what nurses and social workers should do to support family caregiving.

The Trustees built on previous investments in both medicine and nursing to create additional academic centers of geriatric excellence. In particular, we made grants to establish three new centers of excellence in geriatric medicine to train and recruit more geriatrics faculty. This grant expands the number of centers nationwide to 27—part of a $38 million initiative since 1997. Similarly, the Foundation provided $4 million to fund four new centers of geriatric nursing excellence, an effort that now includes nine centers in schools across the country. We also continued to build the geriatric capacity of the social work field. Notably, the Trustees approved a $4.7 million renewal of the GeroEd Center at the Council of Social Work Education to enable more than 130 schools of social work to increase the geriatrics content in their curricula. We also extended our support for the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education, with a $4.6 million grant to create aging-rich field
experiences for Masters-level social work students at 25 additional schools nationwide.

The Foundation’s assets totaled $683.8 million at the end of 2007, representing an increase of $42.3 million during the year, before spending for grants and expenses. In a year that saw a sharp increase in market volatility caused by the bursting of the housing bubble, we are gratified that the 6.8 percent return of the portfolio allowed for modest growth in the assets after spending. Although we did not achieve our objective of adding to the value of the endowment after spending and inflation in 2007, history has shown that through prudent diversification this goal can be met over the longer term. Accordingly, in 2007 the Foundation increased its international equity exposure and invested strategically in absolute return, private equity and real estate funds within the boundaries of acceptable levels of risk.

The composition of our Board of Trustees remained the same in 2007, but we are pleased to report an important addition to our staff. Formerly a program executive on the U.S. Ageing Team at The Atlantic Philanthropies, Christopher Langston, PhD, has taken on the newly established position of program director. A familiar face here at the Foundation, Chris served as a program officer and then senior program officer from 1997 to 2005. In his new role, he will focus on supporting program staff, shaping grantmaking strategy, and, along with Corinne Rieder, our executive director, expanding the Foundation’s relationships and influence with other funders and decision makers.

Finally, I would like to recognize the extraordinary and ongoing efforts of our Board of Trustees, staff, and grantees. I am proud to be a member of such a dynamic and superbly professional group of people. It is an honor and a pleasure to serve with them to further the Foundation’s critically needed work and ensure that the growing number of older adults receive the health care they, and indeed we all, deserve.

Norman H. Volk