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By Varshini Chellapilla   

 When the coronavirus pandemic began, there was great concern about the allocation of scarce healthcare resources like ventilators, ICU beds and hospital staff.  

In large cities like New York, health policy experts feared that hospitals would be overwhelmed by patients needing lifesaving treatment. In some rural areas, health policy experts were also concerned many hospitals did not have the resources they needed to care for patients seriously affected by the novel coronavirus.   

“In public health emergencies, there’s always a concern about finite  resources,” said Andrew Peterson, PhD, a researcher with the Penn Program on Precision Medicine for the Brain. “How you distribute those resources to patients in need is ethically complicated.”  

Dr. Peterson, an assistant professor of philosophy at George Mason University, in collaboration with colleagues at The University of Manchester, conducted a study to understand the opinions of average Americans on these allocation decisions in the pandemic. The study, titled “Public attitudes toward allocating scarce resources in the COVID-19 pandemic,” was published on Nov. 4 in scientific journal PLOS ONE.  

By Varshini Chellapilla 

When studying the risk factors that affect cognitive impairment and dementia among older adults, researchers often focus on how each factor, alone, causes cognitive impairment. But what happens when these factors are examined simultaneously? How do these factors affect people across various groups? 

Jordan Weiss, PhD, a former Penn Memory Center trainee conducted a data-driven prospective study to evaluate the top predictors of dementia among older adults in the United States and how these predictors vary based on race/ethnicity and gender. The study was published in PLOS ONE on Oct. 7. 

Weiss and his team found that the five major predictors across all groups were lower education, loneliness, lower wealth, lower income, and lower self-reported health. However, these predictors varied across racial/ethnic and gender groups.  

“Whereas most prior work has focused on linking a specific risk factor to dementia, our goal was to systematically and simultaneously identify the top predictors of dementia and how they varied across groups defined by race/ethnicity and gender,” Weiss said.  

by Varshini Chellapilla 

Jay Austin was the first study participant to return to the Penn Memory Center after in-person testing was resumed.

Jay Austin

Before his visit in July Austin, a participant of the Aging Brain Cohort (ABC) study, had to undergo COVID-19 pre-screening as part of safety protocols. On the day of his appointment, he walked into the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine, he was greeted by volunteers in masks and personal protection equipment who would check his temperature.

by Cait Kearney

Roy Hamilton, MD, MS, was named to Cell Press’ list of 1,000 Inspiring Black Scientists in America — a list highlighting the excellence of Black people in the scientific community.  

Dr. Hamilton is a neurologist and practicing clinician at PMC, an associate professor in the Departments of Neurology and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and is director of both the Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation (LCNS) and the Brain Science, Translation, Innovation and Modulation Center (brainSTIM). 

Dr. Hamilton also strives to advance diversity and inclusion at Penn, serving as assistant dean for cultural affairs and diversity for the Perelman School of Medicine and vice chair of diversity and Inclusion for the Department of Neurology.  

Learn more about Dr. Hamilton’s work here, and read the full Cell Press list here. 

By Cait Kearney

The ActiviDaily study is taking “there’s an app for that” to a new level of significance.

Principal Investigators Dawn Mechanic-Hamilton, PhD, and Lauren Massimo, PhD, CRNP, research coordinator Sean Lydon, and app developers Alex Miller, MS, and Dan Schiffrin created a smartphone application called ActiviDaily to help individuals with cognitive impairment who have difficulty planning, starting and completing their daily activities.

The app includes features for selecting individualized goals such as physical activity, cognitive stimulation, and engaging in hobbies. Alerting mechanisms are programed to help initiate behaviors to attain goals. Calendars and checklists simplify the activities in a step-by-step fashion, and rewards such as music or games are used to motivate the individual to attain their activity goals.

“The main thing we’re hoping to get out of the app is to improve quality of life for patients by getting them more involved in activities,” said Lydon.

by Varshini Chellapilla

The Virtual Visiting Scholars Program hosted by the Perelman School of Medicine’s Institute on Aging is hosting a pane titled “Pandemic and Prejudice: Lessons from COVID-19 about Aging in America” with keynote speaker Louise Aronson.  

Dr. Aronson is a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Fransisco Division of Geriatrics. She is a geriatrician and writer who has published books on what it means to age in our society, and the history of health and illness in San Fransisco. Additionally, she has served as the director of the Northern California Geriatrics Education Center. She has received multiple awards for her work such as the California Homecare Physician of the Year, the Gold Professorship in Humanism in Medicine, and American Geriatrics Society Clinician-Teacher of the Year. 

The panel will be held on Feb. 3 at 12 p.m. Register online for a link to the virtual webinar.  

Credit: Adobe Stock

by Varshini Chellapilla 

Peggy Williams has seen her husband only three times since March. Jack Williams, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2013, is a resident at a long-term care facility that locked down at the very beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The last time they met, a plexiglass wall stood between them as they maintained a distance of six feet from one another. With Jack’s hearing problems, the masks, and the traffic from the road, Peggy had to yell to be heard.  

“I didn’t even know that Jack started to gain a lot of weight and his clothes weren’t fitting him until the first time on the porch visit,” Peggy said. “Because I’d only seen him from the shoulders up on FaceTime. And Jack, of course, can’t communicate with me. His verbal skills are almost gone.” 

At the end of the visit, Jack was upset. He couldn’t understand why his wife had to leave.  

“They’ve kept Jack safe from COVID but, as far as emotionally and the mental toll, it’s been hell,” Peggy said. “It’s almost like he doesn’t exist anymore. The world just gets smaller and smaller, and it’s been really hard.” 

Mehek Dedhia, left, and Hannah Cao

By Varshini Chellapilla

 Two student researchers from the Penn Memory Center delivered key presentations on the measurement of gender and the effects of stigma in Alzheimer’s research at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference – Neuroscience Next (AAIC-NN) in November.  

Mehek Dedhia, a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania studying neuroscience, and Hannah Cao, a Master of Social Work graduate student, presented at the neuroscience conference that promotes the work of early-career researchers and students in the field.  

Dedhia and Cao’s presentations were produced under Shana Stites, PsyD, MA, MS, a researcher at the Penn Program on Precision Medicine for the Brain (P3MB). Dr. Stites’s research aims to understand the ways in which quality of life and psychological wellbeing can be improved for those with Alzheimer’s disease dementia. Her work focuses on how aspects of identity (such as age, gender, and race) affect the disease experience.  

By Varshini Chellapilla

Andrew Peterson, PhD, an affiliate researcher at the Penn Program on Precision Medicine for the Brain (P3MB), was announced as one of the recipients of the State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV) 2021 Outstanding Faculty Award.  

The award recognizes faculty at Virginia’s institutions of higher learning for the highest standards of teaching, scholarship and service.  

By Cait Kearney

Why does disease progress faster in some people than in others? Why do some individuals have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease?  

To answer questions like these, Corey McMillan, PhD, an affiliated researcher of the Penn Memory Center and associate professor of neurology at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, is studying the diversity of the way neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, manifest and present themselves in people.  

This diversity is referred to as heterogeneity. If researchers can better understand why, for example, one patient begins demonstrating symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 65, but another patient begins demonstrating symptoms at the age of 85, then it may lead to more personalized treatments for individuals and improved clinical outcomes. 

Dr. McMillan studies the heterogeneity of neurodegenerative diseases by examining large sets of DNA samples.