The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam: a valuable advisory board meeting.

On March 25-27 I attended a meeting between the external advisory board of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) with the LASA researchers to discuss progress, opportunities and challenges related to LASA and to advise on LASA’s future.
The LASA meeting started on Wednesday late afternoon with a dinner and post-dinner poster presentations, showing the width and depth of the LASA-related research projects. On Thursday the different general themes within LASA were presented, i.e. physical functioning, cognitive functioning, emotional functioning and social functioning. Presentations of the senior staff of LASA were followed by brief discussions. At the end of the day, the Advosry Board, chaired by Cornelius Katona, Honorary Professor at the Department of Mental Health Sciences of University College London, prepared their preliminary report that was presented and discussed on Friday morning.
In their preliminary report, the advisory board expressed great enthusiasm about the focus, scientific output and societal impact of the LASA study, and provided some strong first recommendations to further enhance the project. One of the main recommendations to the LASA team was to make as much use of the Interdisciplinary nature and possibilities of the LASA study and data, i.e. to encourage collaboration and mutual enrichment between the different research themes. An important recommendation to the LASA 'paymasters', i.e. the Ministry of Health and the VU University and the VU University Medical Center, is to start regarding LASA as crucial infrastructure in stead of 'just' a project.