An Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
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.
As President-elect Donald Trump continues his transition, Alzheimer’s doctors are bracing for his promised repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Americans over the age of 65 have their medical care covered by Medicare, so it would seem that seniors with Alzheimer’s disease are unlikely to feel the impact of the repeal of “Obamacare.”
Not so, Penn Memory Center Co-Director Dr. Jason Karlawish wrote in a column for Forbes.
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.
Officially, Phelps is the deputy director of the Division of Neuroscience, but he is best known as director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Centers (ADC) program, of which the Penn Memory Center is a partner organization.
“It’s about more than just how many centers he’s helped launch,” said Dr. Eliezer Masliah, director of the Division of Neuroscience, in the NIA announcement. “He has built a wonderful relationship with each and every center. ADC staff really trust Tony and value his feedback. He’s been an invaluable asset that we, as well as the centers in particular, will truly miss.”
NIA director Dr. Richard Hodes said Phelps’ impact can be felt across the entire field of Alzheimer’s research.
“Building and strengthening some of NIA’s flagship research programs and refining how we define Alzheimer’s disease, he has helped usher in a new era of Alzheimer’s disease research,” he said.
The Memory Café returns Wednesday, December 21, 2016 with special guest Svitanya, a women’s vocal ensemble whose mission is to bring the beautiful folk music of Eastern Europe to a wide range of audiences.
The group’s repertoire, performed a cappella or with traditional instruments, draws upon a variety of regional traditions. While certain songs are strong field-working tunes, others are more rhythmic dance songs, all invoking harmonies indigenous to the region.
Memory Café is held 10:30 a.m. to noon monthly at Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American Street, Philadelphia. To RSVP, contact Alison Lynn at 215-360-0257 or alison.lynn@uphs.upenn.edu.
The Penn Memory Center and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) are teaming up for a program that pairs volunteers with CHOP patients and other children in the community.
Volunteers will work with children on a range of activities including reading, creating art, engaging with music, and playing with children of a variety of ages.
This program is being piloted at the South Philadelphia Community Health and Literacy Center, which is located at 1700 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA. This is the home of the CHOP Care Network (South Philadelphia), The Philadelphia Free Library, and the DiSilvestro Recreation Center.
Volunteers must be able to volunteer for at least 90 minutes once a week, provide immunization records (MMR, Varicella, Tdap, Influenza, and PPD/TB), obtain Child Safety Clearances (provided and paid for by CHOP), and attend a short CHOP Volunteer Orientation and training session.
For more information, please contact Megan Fucci at (215) 614-7612 or megan.fucci@uphs.upenn.edu.
Penn Memory Center Co-Director Dr. Jason Karlawish has been appointed by Gov. Tom Wolf to serve on Pennsylvania Long-Term Care Council, Wolf’s office announced Tuesday.
Tangled up brain fibrils made up of a rogue protein known as tau are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that likely hold the key to treatments, making them of great interest to researchers. Mimicking the formation and spread of these tangles in animal models with greater accuracy allows scientists to better investigate new therapies to stop or slow their spread.
A new animal model developed at Penn Medicine using tau tangles isolated from the brains of Alzheimer’s patients rather than synthetic tau tangles paints a closer picture of the tau pathology in the AD brain, researchers from the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania reported in the print issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Seeding normal, wildtype mice with the highly potent Alzheimer’s brain-tau (AD-tau) protein induced damaging tangles in their brains for study, mirroring a more realistic progression of tau tangles seen in AD patients’ brains.
Violist Rimbo Wong knows the stereotype — that classical music is for an exclusive audience — but, working with the Penn Memory Center, she hopes to shatter it.
The ArtistYear fellow from the Curtis Institute of Music is spending a year in service to the Philadelphia community with what she calls “Project Home.” She will bring classical music into the homes of Penn Memory Center patients who have Alzheimer’s disease or other types of cognitive impairments.
ArtistYear Fellow Rimbo Wong from Penn Memory Center on Vimeo.