By Chloe Elmer

When a family member falls ill or is incapable of managing his or her own finances, adult children and caregivers may feel overwhelmed taking over. This is where Building Bridges to Wealth hopes to step in. 

By Chloe Elmer

Dance for Health: Active Body, Active Mind — a weekly dance program jointly coordinated by Penn Memory Center and the Ralston Center — and its efforts to involve older African-Americans in West Philadelphia, were featured in a recent edition of WHYY’s NewsWorks.

Merchant, at center right, collaborates with Center for Digital Health team members (L to R) Jesse Goldshear, MPH, Elissa Klinger, SM, Emily Seltzer, MPH, Jeremy Asch, and Remi Gurak. A broad range of disciplines, including medicine, design, engineering, and business, contribute to the team’s innovations. (Credit: PennMedicine.org)

By Chloe Elmer

Social media posts typically include photos from recent vacations or thoughts on current events, but researchers at the Penn Center for Digital Health and the Penn Memory Center are watching social media posts with consent from patients to see if trends can show early signs of Alzheimer’s or other cognitive decline.

Penn Memory Center (PMC) research coordinators Kristin Harkins and Grace Stockbower have successfully graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Public Health (MPH) Program.

Please join us for a special Memory Café at the Penn Museum from 5 p.m to 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 28.

At this free event, friends of the Penn Memory Center are invited to socialize and handle touchable artifacts from the museum and join a guided gallery tour.

After the event, guests are invited to attend the museum’s free outdoor summer concert series featuring the West Philadelphia Orchestra, an eclectic ensemble of musicians who play music with Eastern European folk influences and jazz, punk, and blues flair. Food and drinks are available for purchase at the concert.

Please RSVP to Alison Lynn, 215-360-0257 or alison.lynn@uphs.upenn.edu. Parking is limited, but attendees may try to park in Lot 7 adjoining the museum for $22. Public transportation is encouraged if possible.

In her ongoing exhibition, “Revelations and Transformation, Layers of Memory,” local artist Patricia Moss-Vreeland explores memory “as a meditation on who we are.” On June 20, she’ll invite members of the Penn Memory Center community to do the same.

Join PMC’s Felicia Greenfield and Moss-Vreeland for a free, one-time workshop sponsored by PMC. Guests will learn to become “creators through the lens of memory,” said Moss-Vreeland, who will also lead a guided tour of the exhibition. The workshop is open to PMC patients, research participants, and caregivers, and we can accommodate up to 20 guests.

Time: 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Date: June 20, 2017
Place: Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine, Second Floor, South Pavilion
RSVP: Felicia Greenfield at 215-662-4523 or felicia.greenfield@uphs.upenn.edu
*Light refreshments will be provided.*

Les Wolff stood at the edge of the circle, introduced himself, and threw a punch into the air before him. For the next few minutes, anytime his name was mentioned, a punch was thrown.

It was all part of an improv exercise at the inaugural Cognitive Comedy workshop, presented by the Penn Memory Center with local comedian Leah Lawler. The program is now seeking volunteers for its third “season.”

By Chloe Elmer

Picture a zombie, and images of horror movies will flash before your eyes.

The guttural sounds.

Lifeless eyes.

Loved ones now unrecognizable.

Anything but human.

In his latest Forbes column, “Alzheimer’s Disease Patients Aren’t Zombies; They’re People And We Need To Treat Them Like People,” Penn Memory Center Co-Director Jason Karlawish takes on the metaphor that Alzheimer’s patient are the living dead of Hollywood films and horror novels.

Portraits captured by Kathryn Raines (plate3photography.com)

Please join the Penn Memory Center in taking a look through the lens at Philadelphia’s performance community at our next Memory Café.

Local photographer Kathryn Raines, of Plate 3 Studio, will be featured as this month’s featured guest at the PMC Memory Café Friday, June 2.

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Living with Dementia: Impact on Individuals,
Caregivers, Communities and Societies

For health professionals, students, family caregivers, friends of and affected individuals, and others looking to learn about dementia and quality care

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Dana Goldberg (bottom right) presented at World Elder Abuse Awareness Day in June 2016.

Dana Goldberg looks at the problem of financial abuse of seniors and sees an epidemic.

Older adults in the US have a steady source of income whether they are wealthy or not, making them a target for scammers. Additionally, changes in older adults’ cognition can make financial management more difficult. The result is that every year billions of dollars are lost in the US to fraud and exploitation.

“This is an epidemic and we need to treat it that way,” Goldberg said.

Bob Ibold is known to many as “The Mask Man.”

He is an expert collector and curator of masks from around the world. But Ibold does not use his masks to hide or obscure his identity. He embraces who he is, especially when it comes to the discussion of his cognitive decline.

Ibold was recently featured in the American Journal of Public Health, in an article titled “A Typical Day With Mild Cognitive Impairment.”

Occasionally, art and science come together so that each can breathe new life into the other.

Artist Patricia Moss-Vreeland has joined the theme of memory and mixed-media arts in her exhibition “Revelations and Transformation, Layers of Memory,” now on display at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine’s “Art of the Mind” gallery space.

A bipartisan Congressional deal reached Sunday night calls for an additional $400 million in funding for Alzheimer’s disease research as part of a $2 billion increase in this year’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget, StatNews reported.

The increase will bring federal funding of Alzheimer’s disease research to $1.4 billion, a threefold increase over the last five years, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

The deal does not address 2018, when President Donald Trump has called for an 18-percent cut in the NIH budget. The NIH supports medical research across the nation, including at the Penn Memory Center (PMC).

Visitors to this month’s Memory Café were treated to a unique performance by singer/songwriter Umer Piracha.

Piracha’s music is a multilingual blend of Pakistani-folk-inspired songs, performed alongside more traditionally Western tracks. A Pakistani native and a longtime resident of Philadelphia, Piracha infuses his performances with conversation and storytelling to lead his audiences through various musical influences and traditions.

Jericó, Antioquia, Colombia (Credit: Melissa Sanchez A.)

The Colombian region of Antioquia is a 12-hour drive from the border of Panama, but it is in some ways the center of the world of Alzheimer’s disease research.

Antioquia is “genetically isolated” and has a large population carrying a rare gene that increases their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. This makes its residents ideal human models for Alzheimer’s disease, but researchers must first weigh the legal, ethical, and social implications of working with this cohort.

Such was the focus of a presentation made by Penn Memory Center Co-Director Jason Karlawish at Columbia University March 27.

From left: Kelsey Fleming, Megan Fucci, Deirdre MacFarlane, Lauren Tempesta

Megan Fucci, Kelsey Fleming, Deirdre MacFarlane, and Lauren Tempesta have successfully completed their internship in clinical social work at the Penn Memory Center, a final step towards earning their Masters in Social Work degrees from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. The students had been Penn Aging Concentration Fellows in the program.

“I had the honor and privilege of supervising all four Advanced Year students at the PMC,” said Felicia Greenfield, director of clinical research operations and care programs. “They each brought so much to our center, and it is with mixed emotions that their internship is coming to an end.”

The question was asked a few different times and in a few different ways, but each time the message was essentially the same: How can I prevent Alzheimer’s disease?

Facing a room of dozens of older Philadelphians, Penn Memory Center Co-Director Dr. Jason Karlawish told the crowd that while there are clinical trials at the University of Pennsylvania and across the globe, a miracle drug that will prevent or cure all types of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias is not in sight.

There is myriad data showing that what’s good for the heart — a healthy diet and regular exercise — is good for the brain and may decrease one’s risk of dementia, especially dementia caused by vascular disease, he explained. But we’ve yet to discover a treatment that targets Alzheimer’s disease pathology.

Speaking as part of the Friends in the City Lecture Series, Karlawish encouraged the audience to consider, for example, the impact of self-driving vehicles on aging adults with memory loss. By removing the worry of getting lost traveling to a daughter’s house, a mother can maintain her independence that much longer.

The Pennsylvania Secretary of Aging needs your help to combat Alzheimer’s disease.

Teresa Osborne led a roundtable discussion at a regional Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Forum Wednesday at Ralston House​.

The forum brought together stakeholders from local communities throughout the Philadelphia area and the surrounding counties to discuss their engagement in, and the progress of, Pennsylvania’s State Plan for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders. The forums are also intended to inspire action by fostering a deeper understanding of Alzheimer’s and the public health crisis it poses. 

Join the Penn Memory Center team as we welcome singer/songwriter Umer Piracha to our next Memory Café, April 21 at Christ Church Neighborhood House.

Piracha’s music is a multilingual blend of Pakistani-folk-inspired songs, performed alongside more traditionally Western tracks. A Pakistani native and a longtime resident of Philadelphia, Piracha infuses his performances with conversation and storytelling to lead his audiences through various musical influences and traditions.

Penn Memory Center Founding Director Christopher M. Clark, MD, (top row, second from right) is added to the Upper Dublin High School Alumni Hall of Fame on March 24, 2017.

The late Christopher M. Clark, MD, founding director of the Penn Memory Center and Upper Dublin High School alumnus, was inducted into his alma mater’s Alumni Hall of Fame March 24.

Though most honored alumni are recognized for athletic accomplishments, Clark was among the first inductees honored in the new category of Medicine, Science and Technology for his outstanding work in the medical profession.

Two researchers called more attention to the personal and social effects of risk-awareness and the expectation of stigma in pre-clinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the April edition of The Lancet Psychiatry, a U.K.-based medical journal. 

In an address to the Securities Industry Institute (SII) last month, Dr. Jason Karlawish told an audience of financial service industry professionals that they could be the first to notice a client’s developing cognitive impairment. 

From left: Director for Diversity in Research and Education Tigist Hailu, Research Coordinator Kristin Harkins, Research Coordinator Nayoung Kim, Research Coordinator Arun Pilania, Psychometrist Laura Saad, Assistant Director of Care Programs Alison Lynn, Senior Research Coordinator Martha Combs, Research Coordinator Grace Stockbower, and Research Coordinator Joe Harrison.

On a sunny Saturday morning, March 25, the Penn Memory Center welcomed research participants and study partners to the Inn at Penn for the annual Research Partner Thank You Breakfast.

Early intervention may be the future of Alzheimer’s treatment, according to Newsweek’s recent cover story on the disease. The article called for proactive diagnosis and aggressive preventative treatments. This approach to drug development marks a major departure from the conventional focus, aimed at treating later stages of AD.

“I’m afraid that even by the stage of very mild dementia, you’ve already lost 70 percent of the key neurons in the memory regions of the brain. Ultimately, we need to start treating people before there are symptoms,” Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Dr. Reisa Sperling, director of the Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment, told Newsweek.

Ralston Wellness is pleased to present its newest series, “The Fine Art of Aging Creatively.” The weekly art class will take place each Thursday during the 10 weeks between April 6 and June 8. This free program welcomes individuals over the age of 60. The series will demonstrate techniques designed for those suffering from manual arthritis.

Artist and historian Cassandra Stancil Gunkel will lead the class.

Antipsychotics are ineffective in improving distress-related delirium in palliative care, according to a recent article in Neurology Today. In fact, researchers found antipsychotics to be less helpful than non-pharmacological approaches, indicating a need for alternative management strategies in patient care.

Non-medicating strategies might include “providing one-on-one sitters with patients who are beginning to develop delirium,” Penn Memory Center Co-Director Dr. Jason Karalwish wrote in expert commentary. These sitters could be “someone who can redirect a patient who’s climbing out of bed and provide some personal attention and comfort,” Karlawish wrote.

“Think about a typical case of delirium where someone starts crying out, ‘Help me!’” Karlawish challenged. “Rather than say that’s a druggable moment, we should think about the meaning of the behavior. It might be distressing to see, but there’s a messiness to death that oftentimes is part of the meaning we take from experience. Maybe we should ask, “how can I help you?’”

Learn about approaches to end-of-life care at Neurology Today.

Pharmaceutical company Merck has discontinued its EPOCH study, originally scheduled to continue through July 2017.

EPOCH, which began in late 2012, sought to improve Alzheimer’s disease symptoms by slowing deposition of the beta-amyloid plaques characteristic of AD. The first step in beta-amyloid production requires a BACE enzyme. This study tested verubecestat, an inhibitor of one such BACE enzyme, in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

Tigist Hailu, MPH, has been named to the new Penn Memory Center position of Director for Diversity in Research and Education.

Her appointment speaks to PMC’s mission to increase the diversity of clinicians and researchers in the field of aging research, as well as to ensure that patient engagement reflects the diverse communities affected by age-related cognitive disease. Hailu will continue to develop training initiatives for clinicians and researchers, as well as for students through programs such as the Minority Scholars Program in Aging Research and the Public Health Dimensions of Cognitive Aging Certificate Program.

The Philadelphia Sports Writers Association recently presented Bill Lyon, sportswriter emeritus for the Philadelphia Inquirer, with its “Most Courageous Award.”

The honor came not for Lyon’s impressive sports-writing portfolio, but rather for a recent series documenting his personal struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

In his writing, Lyon, 79, discusses his joint effort with Dr. Jason Karlawish and the Penn Memory Center tackle “Al,” his nickname for Alzheimer’s disease.

Click here to read more about the award.

With the Lantern Theatre Company, playwright Deborah Zoe Laufer premiered a gripping play about genetics, identity, and family called Informed Consent.

The play’s lead is a young and ambitious scientist who lives with a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s disease that she inherited from her mother and fears that she has already passed down to her young daughter.

Itching for any opportunity to help cure her daughter before her own mind deteriorates, Jilian (the researcher) agrees to perform research on a small, secluded Native tribe living in the Grand Canyon.

In March 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the most impactful health care reform bill since Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. Today, President Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress are poised to dismantle this law, a move that will endanger the health status of millions of Americans, especially those with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, medical experts argue.

The Affordable Care Act, known as the ACA or Obamacare, is a legislative engine created to reduce rising healthcare costs while improving health outcomes for all Americans. Medical experts maintain that the ACA provides vital support to those with cognitive impairments. Should the law remain intact, it will continue to benefit patients, caregivers, and families. Despite this, Republican leaders decry the ACA as a failure.

“The ACA has led to multiple initiatives that are improving the quality of care in the hospital, community, and long-term care settings,” Dr. Jason Karlawish, Co-Director of the Penn Memory Center, wrote in a recent Forbes column. “These initiatives are reducing out-of-pocket payments for prescription drugs, tackling the horror of elder abuse and neglect, and training healthcare professionals in geriatric medicine.”

The Penn Memory Center and supporter Joe Nicoletti welcomed friends and family to the Class of 1923 Arena Monday for the inaugural Penn Memory Center On Ice.

More than 30 guests enjoyed the exclusive access to the University of Pennsylvania’s historic skating rink in support of the PMC’s research efforts.

The Penn Memory Center thanks Joe Nicoletti for organizing the event and for his continued support.

For more images, visit the Penn Memory Center Facebook page.

Without looking at the Penn Memory Center faculty page, try to answer the question: Who is an Alzheimer’s disease doctor?

A neurologist?

Psychiatrist?

Family practitioner?

In his latest Forbes column, Penn Memory Center Co-Director Dr. Jason Karlawish recalls the definition applied by a task force he was on: a geriatrician, neurologist or psychiatrist who devotes a ‘substantial proportion’ of practice — at least 25 percent of patient contact — to diagnosing and caring for adults with cognitive problems. Unfortunately, he explains, ‘there aren’t a lot of doctors who meet this criterion.” Why not?

Alzheimer’s: Every Minute Counts is an urgent wake-up call about the national threat posed by Alzheimer’s disease.

Many know the unique tragedy of this disease, but few know that Alzheimer’s is one of the most critical public health crises facing America. This powerful documentary illuminates the social and economic consequences for the country unless a medical breakthrough is discovered for this currently incurable disease.

WHI Epsom SE August 2009
Credit Paul Glendell Natural England

Personal and social goals may be effective in motivating older adults to exercise, according to a study this month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Although numerous studies have demonstrated significant health benefits from walking – including decreased risk of heart disease, obesity, hypertension, and premature mortality – fewer than half of all adults achieve recommended levels of physical activity. Adults 65 and older are least likely to be physically active. In a 16 week period, both financial incentives and opportunity to donate to charity increased walking in older adults, by 2,348 steps and 2,562 steps per day, respectively.

• What: Opening Reception for exhibit Portraits of Family Caregivers of People with Alzheimer’s/dementia
• When: Friday, February 10th. 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.  
• Where: LaBelle Art Gallery, 123 Kings Highway Haddonfield, N.J.
• Contact: Raymond W. Holman at (215) 205-7414

Let Derek Yach describe a scenario for you: In a mountain village, vaccinations are expensive and difficult to obtain. Doctors only come every so often to deliver vaccines to children, so when the doctors make their visits, the families will travel many days through the mountains to meet the doctors. On one such trip, as the doctors are approaching the village, a car rolls off of the road in front of them, and the driver has fractured her femur and is bleeding heavily.

The doctors face a decision: They could treat the driver immediately and save her life but not reach the children waiting for vaccinations, or they could continue their trip up the mountain to deliver their vaccinations while letting the driver suffer her injuries alone.

In his TEDx talk, Derek Yach asks, “What would you do?”

The University of Pennsylvania’s Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center (ADCC) has refined its purpose and expanded its impact through the creation of a new research education core.

Core F focuses on preparing students and junior faculty to undertake research on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias across a wide range of approaches and disciplines.

The core offers training and mentorship opportunities for MD (and MD/PHD) fellows who have completed their residencies, PhD postdoctoral trainees, and junior faculty (MD, PhD, or MD/PhD).

Dementia is on the decline in the United States, and those who do develop dementia do so later in life, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

Between 2000 and 2012, dementia rates for people above the age of 65 dropped from 11.6 percent to 8.8 percent, a decrease of 24 percent. About 21,000 adults participated in the study led by researcher Dr. Kenneth Langa at the University of Michigan.

“This could have huge public health and policy implications,” Langa told Alzforum. He said that although the total number of people with dementia will in fact increase, the expected burden will likely be smaller than expected. According to his findings, there may be as many as 1 million fewer Americans suffering from dementia than was previously anticipated.

High magnification photomicrographs of a tau tangle (left) and an alpha-synuclein Lewy body (right)

PHILADELPHIA – Patients who had a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) with dementia (PDD) or dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and had higher levels  of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology in their donated post-mortem brains also had more severe symptoms of these Lewy body diseases (LBD) during their lives, compared to those whose brains had less AD pathology, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In particular, the degree of abnormal tau protein aggregations, indicative of AD, most strongly matched the clinical course of the LBD patients who showed evidence of dementia prior to their deaths, the team reports in The Lancet Neurology First Online, ahead of the January print edition.

Alzheimer’s: Every Minute Counts, premiering 10 p.m. January 25 on PBS, is an urgent wake-up call about the national threat posed by Alzheimer’s disease.

Many know the unique tragedy of this disease, but few know that Alzheimer’s is one of the most critical public health crises facing America. This powerful documentary illuminates the social and economic consequences for the country unless a medical breakthrough is discovered for this currently incurable disease.

The families of dementia patients can improve their loved one’s experiences in nursing homes by establishing “goals of care,” Neurology Today reported.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina showed family members a short video and helped facilitate discussion between the families and nursing home staff to establish a care plan. The plan led to improved communication about end-of-life care and fewer hospital transfers, Neurology Today reported.

The latest edition of InSight news magazine — your guide to the people, research, and programs at the Penn Memory Center — is hot off the press and sporting a new look.

With a lead story on photo elicitation project “Typical Day,” we ­redesigned our cover to better display the artwork of photographer Damari McBride, who worked with the Penn Memory Center on the project.

A dozen participants with mild cognitive impairment were asked to capture a typical day through a series of photographs of the people, places, and things that have an impact on their lives. Their snapshots, stories, and portraits taken by McBride are on display at www.mytypicalday.org and in a temporary exhibit at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine.

Tests that measure the sense of smell may soon become common in neurologists’ offices. Scientists have been finding increasing evidence that the sense of smell declines sharply in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, and now a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania published today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease confirms that administering a simple “sniff test” can enhance the accuracy of diagnosing this dreaded disease.