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The Curtis Institute of Music would like to extend an exciting invitation to the Penn Memory Center (PMC) community to attend a final concert featuring participants from the Creative Expression Through Music Program.

Participants of the program are all PMC patients experiencing memory change, mild cognitive impairment, or early-stage dementia. Throughout seven classes, the last of which is Tuesday, they engaged in a collaborative musical experience, with a particular focus on creating original tunes.

The concert will consist entirely of pieces imagined by members of the PMC community, all performed by Curtis students. The Curtis Institute is a conservatory in Center City, Philadelphia that educates gifted students from around the world in the study of music. They’ve worked closely with PMC at Memory Cafés and Caregiver Retreats. But their interactive program is a new effort, piloted for the first time this year.

Older adults susceptible to financial scams may have a greater chance of developing cognitive impairment, according to a study published April 16 ($) in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The research, conducted at the Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, involved 935 older adults who did not have dementia. They were assessed for “scam awareness” by rating their agreement to statements using a 7-point scale. There were five statements:

• I answer the telephone whenever it rings, even if I do not know who is calling.
• I have difficulty ending a phone call, even if the caller is a telemarketer, someone I do not know, or someone I did not wish to call me.
• If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
• Persons older than 65 are often targeted by con artists.
• When telemarketers call me, I usually listen to what they have to say.

A newly published study found that positron emission tomography (PET) scans used to detect plaques related to Alzheimer’s disease may influence the care and diagnoses received by patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia.

More specifically, the results of the research showed that in about two-thirds of cases, clinicians who received information from their patients’ PET scans went on to change medical management regarding medications or counseling within 90 days.

The participant pool included 11,409 men and women from across the nation living with MCI or dementia of an uncertain cause. They were an average age of 75, and were all Medicare beneficiaries. Participants came from a multisite, longitudinal study known as the Imaging Dementia—Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (IDEAS) study. 

By Sharnita Midgett

As biomarkers have taken on a larger role in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, even before the onset of symptoms such as cognitive decline, researchers have debated how to label these “pre-clinical” patients.

The evolution of diagnosis also creates a new role for the loved ones of these patients, those who may someday need to care for a patient living with dementia. This, argued two Penn Memory Center (PMC) researchers, is “the dawn of the pre-caregiver.”

In a March 2019 JAMA Neurology article, PMC Co-Director Jason Karlawish, MD, and PMC Scholar Emily Largent, PhD, JD, RN, discussed how the pre-clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, in conjunction with new laws, will lead to earlier engagement of family members in care.

In honor of National Healthcare Decisions Day (4/16), VITAS Healthcare is hosting two FREE workshops to assist with advance care planning:

• Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 5-7 p.m. at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital Medical Sciences Building, Lobby Auditorium, 1500 Landsdowne Ave., Darby PA 19023
• Wednesday, April 17, 2019, 5-7 p.m. at Mercy Nazareth Hospital, DiBello Rooms A&B, 2601 Holme Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19152

The workshops are for anyone in the community over the age of 18, but especially seniors, who don’t yet have a living will (also known as an advance directive). Attendees will play a game called “My Gift of Grace” (or “Hello”) which is about living and dying well. After a brief refreshments break, attendees will dig into the Five Wishes format for advance care planning. For more information, click here.

Space is limited. RSVP by April 15 to Sara Burns at Sara.Burns@VITAS.com.