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Magyar Gerontológiai és Geriátriai Társaság Hungarian Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics Introduction
Sándor Korányi - an internationally well known professor of internal medicine and nephrology - played a fundamental role in research on geriatrics in Hungary. His statement that the first sign of ageing is the decrease of adaptation is relevant also today. He outlined the importance of the identification and treatment of diseases still in their early stages, also in case of elderlies. According to his suggestion, the first Congress on Gerontology was organized in 1937. After the World War II, coordination and support for research on gerontology started in the late 50-s when the Committee of Gerontology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was set up, with Mr. László Haranghy as chair. The Committee organized scientific meetings and CME courses on gerontology. These tasks were taken over by the Gerontological Section of the Hungarian Biological Association founded in 1958 (chairman László Haranghy, secretary Mrs Edit Beregi). This section became a member of the International Gerontological Association in 1956.
It was a great honor of the Hungarian Association of Gerontology, that the XV. World Congress on Gerontology (chairman professor Edit Beregi) was held in Budapest, on 4-9 July 1993 with almost 5000 participants. In 1988 the National College of Gerontology as an advisory board to the Minister of Health started its work. This body, together with HAG, has achieved the recognition of geriatrics as a primary and also a secondary medical specialty in 2000 and in 2003 a minimum dataset and framework on geriatric wards has been established. In the recent years unfortunately a decline has occurred in the activity of the Hungarian Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics HAGG). The membership has been reduced partly due to the parallel existence of the Society of Preventiv Gerontology and Geriatrics. Moreover the activity and efficacy of the HAGG was inhibited by the fact, that the prestige of geriatrics as medical profession had been significantly weakened by the recent unfavorable practice of the Ministry of Health. Although the Ministry realized the importance of the geriatric profession in words, but usually neglected it in its everyday decisions during the last years. However the personal change in leading this portfolio in 2008 gives us hope again to improve and to reverse this negative trend. |