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Clinicians studying Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are advancing to the next stage of research, but they need the help of volunteer participants.

New technology has allowed sites like the Penn Memory Center (PMC) to take a more detailed look at the brains of living research participants, and studies are adapting to collect more of that data.

“Imaging in this day and age is one of the most useful things for how to follow what’s going on in a living person’s brain,” said Dr. David Wolk, PMC co-director.

Bill Lyon, right, is joined by Dr. Jason Karlawish at the Penn Memory Center. Credit: Clem Murray/Philly.com

In the world of sports journalism, Bill Lyon is a legend.

In more than 40 years in the Philadelphia region, working for The Philadelphia Inquirer, he has covered the biggest moments in sports: the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Olympics. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize six times.

Yet through decades of watching elite athletes square off, Lyon has never covered a battle quite like his own.

Philadelphia’s premier contemporary ballet is set to honor late Penn Memory Center research participant Toni Hamilton with a performance inspired by her writing.

Beginning Wednesday, July 6, BalletX will hold its two-week Summer Series 2016 at The Wilma Theater, featuring choreographers Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Matthew Neenan, with virtual art shop Klip Collective.

The longer a patient with a neurodegenerative disease goes undiagnosed and untreated, the less likely it is that treatment will be effective, a Penn Memory Center neurologist told Penn Medicine.

“Early detection and diagnosis result in the ability to get patients started with early interventions,” said Dr. Sanjeev Vaishnavi, an assistant professor of Neurology. “Medications can result in an initial stabilization in memory and functional impairment, especially when used early in the course of the disease.”

For that to take place, someone — be it the patient or a loved one — needs to begin a difficult conversation.

“This is certainly not an easy conversation to start,” Vaishnavi said. “People are scared of the words dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

“It’s rare that a person hasn’t seen the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s on someone else. They don’t want to think about themselves in that position. People are afraid they will be labeled as ‘no longer smart.’ People are concerned that they might lose their job, or become a burden on their loved ones, or that someone may become unrecognizable to them.”

Read the complete article on PennMedicine.org.

Tigist Hailu, Penn Memory Center coordinator for diversity in research and education, presented her photo elicitation project on living with mild cognitive impairment at today’s Penn Institute on Aging Retreat.

Learn more about “What’s a Typical Day” here.

Credit: Philip Marshall

Claire Jones was enjoying a comfortable retirement after years working as a bookkeeper and keeping a close eye on her own personal savings. But just a few months after “winning the lottery,” she had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It was a scam that, in her younger years, Ms. Jones would have sniffed out immediately. But as she aged, changes to her fluid intelligence and social and emotional processing turned her into a perfect target for scam artists.

Stories of financial fraud with elder victims are common, though many cases are preventable. Dr. Jason Karlawish, co-director of the Penn Memory Center, outlined a plan he calls “whealthcare” in his latest Forbes column.

Memory Café, a monthly pop-up café for Penn Memory Center patients and their caregivers, has secured six months of funding from Christ Church Neighborhood House.

With the grant, the Penn Memory Center will be able to invite local artists to each month’s café. Upcoming performances include cellist and Curtis Institute alumna Arlen Hlusko and Theatre of Witness creator Teya Sepinuck.

Additionally, guests will have an improved “café experience” through a set of new café tables and entertainment options such as adult coloring books, said Christ Church Neighborhood House Program Director Abigail Guay. A wider selection of coffee and snacks — previously donated from Kitchen Gia — will be purchased from a variety of local vendors.

Scientifically, great progress has been made in understanding how Alzheimer’s changes the brain, Penn Medicine physician Jason Karlawish told a 2016 Penn Alumni-Faculty Exchange audience. But despite research findings that suggest potential new approaches, there have been no dramatic changes in either the diagnostics or therapies currently available for the brain destroying disease.

Karlawish, MD, Co-Director of the Penn Memory Center, Director of Penn’s Neurodegenerative Disease Ethics and Policy Program (NDEP), and a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI), was one of a number of top Penn experts taking part in April’s day-long series of health research-related presentations for the 50th anniversary gathering of the Penn Class of 1966.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney gives the keynote address at the announcement Tuesday. (Credit: Twitter.com/PhillyMayor)

The Ralston Center and its partners announced on Tuesday the launch of the “Age-Friendly West Philadelphia” initiative, a collaborative partnership two years in the making.

Services for West Philadelphia’s senior citizens are “plentiful,” but people don’t know where to look or whom to trust, said Ralston Center CEO Joseph Lukach. Ralston Center, a nearly 200-year-old organization dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of Philadelphia’s seniors, hopes to work with its 40-plus partners organizations — including the Penn Memory Center — to change that.

“Older West Philadelphians are more likely to live in poverty, to be obese or in poor health, and to face limitations with activities of daily living than older adults living elsewhere,” organizers wrote in the Ralston Center annual report.