The Department of Geriatric Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, serves as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Ageing. In this role, the department actively supports the World Health Organization (WHO) by contributing clinical expertise, academic leadership, and research capacity to advance healthy ageing initiatives.
Through its strong clinical implementation experience and service delivery platforms, the centre plays a crucial role in developing practical models for geriatric care, long-term care systems, and healthy ageing strategies.
Implementing WHO’s Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) Framework
To improve healthcare for older adults, the centre conceptualized and established a culturally appropriate, sustainable, and equitable long-term care implementation framework. Subsequently, it operationalized the WHO Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) approach across both outpatient and inpatient settings.
As part of this initiative, clinicians screened thousands of older adults using the ICOPE framework. This approach generated valuable real-world data across all intrinsic capacity domains, including cognitive, mobility, sensory, psychological, and nutritional health.
Consequently, the programme helped identify early functional decline and enabled healthcare providers to develop personalized care plans for elderly patients.
WHO’s Role in Supporting the Collaboration
While AIIMS led the on-ground implementation, the World Health Organization provided normative guidance, technical oversight, and strategic alignment with global healthy ageing frameworks.
These frameworks include:
- WHO Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Ageing and Health
- United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030)
- WHO South-East Asia Regional Strategy for Healthy Ageing
In addition, WHO ensured quality assurance, policy relevance, and integration of programme outputs into broader regional healthy ageing priorities.
Key Achievements in Geriatric Care and Research
As per the WHO press release, the collaboration produced several impactful outcomes that strengthened both clinical practice and geriatric research in India.
One of the centre’s major achievements was the institutionalization of routine ICOPE screening in outpatient departments, enabling the assessment of more than 4,500 older adults annually.
This large-scale screening programme generated comprehensive intrinsic capacity data across five major domains:
- Cognitive health
- Mobility and physical function
- Sensory abilities (vision and hearing)
- Psychological wellbeing
- Nutritional status
Based on these assessments, clinicians developed structured and personalized care plans, ensuring continuous monitoring and follow-up.
Capacity Building and National Training Initiatives
In addition to clinical services, the centre actively focused on training and capacity building in geriatric healthcare.
It trained medical residents, nurses, and research scholars in the principles and application of the ICOPE framework. Furthermore, the department organized a national ICOPE workshop, which brought together over 200 healthcare professionals and researchers.
These initiatives significantly contributed to strengthening geriatric care expertise across India.
Advancing Research on Ageing and Intrinsic Capacity
To further expand scientific understanding of ageing, the centre also launched pilot longitudinal research studies. These studies aim to track intrinsic capacity trajectories in older adults during hospitalization and after discharge.
Such research provides valuable insights into how age-related functional decline progresses over time, enabling clinicians to design preventive and rehabilitative interventions for elderly patients.
Knowledge Transfer and Global Learning
The collaboration between AIIMS New Delhi and WHO has facilitated meaningful knowledge exchange and global learning.
For WHO, the centre has served as a demonstration site for implementing the ICOPE model, generating systematic data on intrinsic capacity, healthcare integration, and workforce training strategies.
Additionally, the centre has provided contextual insights from a high-volume tertiary care setting, which are particularly relevant for scaling healthy ageing programmes in resource-constrained environments.
Strengthening Clinical Practice and Research at AIIMS
At the same time, the partnership has allowed the AIIMS Department of Geriatric Medicine to align its work with WHO’s global healthy ageing frameworks.
This collaboration has strengthened the department’s research output, international visibility, and role as a regional technical partner. Moreover, it has enabled clinicians to integrate global healthy ageing concepts into routine clinical care, training, and research programmes.
Importantly, the initiative highlights the need to embed intrinsic capacity and functional ability assessments into routine healthcare, rather than treating geriatric medicine as a separate specialty service.
Shaping Policy Discussions on Long-Term Care in India
Beyond clinical practice, the collaboration has also contributed to policy-level discussions on long-term care systems in India.
It has emphasized the importance of bridging gaps between hospital-based care, primary healthcare services, and community-based support systems. Such integration is essential to address the growing healthcare needs of India’s ageing population.
Future Directions for Healthy Ageing Programmes
Looking ahead, the collaboration will focus on expanding scalable models for ICOPE 2.0 implementation, strengthening healthcare workforce development, and enhancing intermediate and day-care services within long-term care systems.
Additionally, future initiatives may include multi-country research on intrinsic capacity trajectories and further advancement of implementation science in geriatric care.
Through these efforts, the partnership between AIIMS New Delhi and WHO aims to continue shaping evidence-based strategies for healthy ageing, integrated elderly care, and sustainable long-term care systems in India and beyond.