January - March 2013, Volume 9, Issue 1

Prada G

European Call for Longevity. New Perspectives Upon Ageing

Acta Endo (Buc) 2013, 9 (1): 1-10
doi: 10.4183/aeb.2013.1

Over the last decades aging has become a major concern for both medical professionals and policy makers. European Commission has been launching a series of initiatives aimed at drawing attention to great social, political and economic importance of aging research and at finding as well as disseminating the best practices in order to attain a very important objective: to add two years of healthy live to people in Europe by 2020. Nevertheless, there is still controversy regarding the accepted age limit for older people and also concerning various aspects of aging and aging research, most important being the difficulty of correlating chronological age to biological age. A new perspective is suggested and this might help scientists and clinicians understand better the problems of old age and could facilitate targeting research and medical strategies to the most appropriate goals. Several very important projects in the field of aging, funded by European Commission, are presented and a novel approach to the specific situation of older people is offered.

Keywords: aging, European Commission, age, innovation partnership

Correspondence: Gabriel Ioan Prada MD, PhD, “Ana Aslan” National Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Clinical Department, Str. Caldarusani, No.9, Sector 1, Bucharest, 011241, Romania, E-mail: giprada@gmail.com