Our History

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 Donald Portsmouth and Ronald Cape(deceased 2007) proposed the creation of an Institute  in 1970. The inaugural meeting of the Institute  funded by the Regional Health Authority and widespread support locally and more widely was in 1972. Dr Cape became its first director and Dr Portsmouth its founding honorary secretary. Its founding objective was to improve the medical care of old people.

They proposed Moseley Hall originally a 15th century property, rebuilt after being burnt down, as the home of John Taylor the co-founder of Lloyd’s Bank, in the Priestly riots (1791) and eventually donated to the Birmingham City Council by Richard Cadbury (then his private residence) as a convalescent unit for deprived children, converted to a hospital for children 1948 and in 1970 with the addition of a new ward to become a Geriatric Hospital.  

Their proposal focussed on a number of key objectives to increase the profile of the speciality in the West Midlands and to improve recruitment to the speciality. This was to be through developing teaching and research across the health and social care sector and an evidence based clinical service  to improve outcomes for older people in a very deprived and care focussed environment. It set out to establish a Chair of Geriatric Medicine and Professor Bernard Isaacs started a new University of Birmingham Department in !975 retiring in1989.

The IAH has changed over the years to be, now, a charitable society most recently seeking to work in partnership with Birmingham City University, under the Chairmanship of Professor Joanne Rybacka- Brooke, Director of Centre for Social Care, Health and Related Research with the intention of continuing its educational and publishing themes but with an increased focus on stimulating clinical research  initially offering small grants to explore new research questions promoted by  the research department of the Birmingham Community NHS FT.  which leads a national community network ( Community Connexions) which in 2023 received a national Health Service Journal award.  technologies including Swift, Java, Kotlin, and React Native. Outside of work, I enjoy playing basketball and travelling.