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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.