An Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
Richard Rubin, PhD
Details:
I Am Life: Humanity in Advanced Dementia
Featuring Richard Rubin and Jason Karlawish
2 to 3:30 p.m. March 29, 2016
Room 11-146AB
Smilow Center for Translational Research, 3400 Civic Center Boulevard, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104
Space is limited. Please reserve your seat by calling Terrence Casey at 215-898-9979 or emailing terrence.casey@uphs.upenn.edu.
African-Americans in the United States are more likely to die from HIV, develop Alzheimer’s disease, or require amputation from diabetic complications than their white counterparts, and the healthcare industry’s racial disparity is as much an economic issue as it is a social issue, said Richard Carmona.
“It’s about making smart decisions, because if you don’t deal with this, the disease and economic burden just continues to go up,” said the former Surgeon General of the United States. “And you can pass it on to the next generation, but what I can tell you today is, if we don’t do something about these disparities, these injustices and so on, the disease and economic burden we will leave our children is unsustainable. The bank is breaking today.”
Carmona was speaking as part of the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Health Equity Symposium at the University of Pennsylvania Jan. 27. Watch the video below for a preview of his speech. Check back for complete coverage.
As researchers learn more about Alzheimer’s disease and its treatment, disagreements arise over how exactly to define elements of clinical care.
What is the line between age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease?
Is Mild Cognitive Impairment a pre-clinical symptom or a risk factor of Alzheimer’s disease?
Is Alzheimer’s disease really a single disease?
A Drexel University-led symposium, “The Changing Face of Alzheimer’s Disease, Revisited,” will ask a panel of experts to look at the past, present and future for answers to these questions and others 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26 in New College Building, Geary B, 245 N. 15th Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19102. This event is open to the public, but attendees are asked to RSVP here before Feb. 19.
Penn Memory Center Co-Director Jason Karlawish will present “The House of Alzheimer’s Disease.”
(Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger)
Dance for Health, a pilot study evaluating the effect of a dance program on both memory and overall health and fitness, is welcoming members of the public to join in on the weekly dance sessions. New dancers will not be part of the research program.
Dance for Health is held 5 to 7 p.m. every Thursday between Feb. 4 and April 28 at the Sayre Morris Recreation Center, 5835 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
The program, launched by the Penn School of Nursing two years ago, began working with the Penn Memory Center this year to recruit older adults.
Questions? Contact Tigist Hailu, coordinator for diversity in research and education, at 215-573-6095 or tigist.hailu@uphs.upenn.edu.
The Penn Memory Center’s next pop-up Memory Café will be held 10:30 a.m. to noon Friday, February 5 at Christ Church Neighborhood House. Be ready to be moved; we are very excited to announce that there will be a special musical performance by the Curtis Institute.
Due to the press the café received in the The Huffington Post, Penn Current, and The Philadelphia Inquirer, we are expecting a larger-than-normal crowd. To help us prepare, please RSVP by e-mailing Genevieve Ilg or calling 215-630-0257 by Wednesday, February 3. Please include the total number of guests you plan to bring as well.
The Memory Café is open exclusively to Penn Memory Center patients and their caretakers/family members.
When it comes to studying Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, researchers could save money and reach more participants by using mail, phone and online programs in place of clinic visits.
“Asking someone to answer their phone once a year is much easier than asking them to come in for half a day,” said Dr. Fran Grodstein, Harvard professor and Brigham and Women’s Hospital epidemiologist, at the University of Pennsylvania Jan. 21. Grodstein was participating in the Institute on Aging’s Visiting Scholar Series.
Lumosity creator Lumos Labs will pay $2 million in a settlement over claims it made while advertising its “brain training” program, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced.
The FTC argued that Lumosity customers were tricked into thinking that the program would delay “cognitive impairment associated with age.”
“Lumosity preyed on consumers’ fears about age-related cognitive decline, suggesting their games could stave off memory loss, dementia, and even Alzheimer’s disease,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “But Lumosity simply did not have the science to back up its ads.”
Up to five million older American are abused, neglected, or exploited every year, and an upcoming webinar will bring together experts to move towards a solution.
Making Elder Justice a Reality, held 2-3 p.m. EST on Jan. 15, includes presentations from Kathy Greenlee, administrator of the Administration for Community Living and the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Aging, and Terry Fulmer, president of The John A. Hartford Foundation. Also presenting will be John Feather, CEO of Grantmakers in Aging, which is organizing the event.
Alzheimer’s disease has entered the 2016 presidential campaign.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for $2 billion in annual funding for research toward finding a treatment and a cure.
“We owe it to the millions of families who stay up at night worrying about their loved ones afflicted by this terrible disease and facing the hard reality of the long goodbye to make research investments that will prevent, effectively treat and make a cure possible,” the Democratic front-runner said in a statement Tuesday.
A “new era in Alzheimer’s research” kicked off last week with the public unveiling of GeneMatch.
GeneMatch, an extension of Banner Alzheimer’s Institute’s online registry at www.endalznow.org, connects cognitively normal volunteers with research opportunities based on their genotype.
Dr. Eric Reiman, executive director of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, said he has long dreamed of a time that genetics could play a larger role in dementia research, “and that time has come.”
Cognitively normal adults ages 55 to 74 who supply GeneMatch with their information will be sent a cheek swab kit for DNA collection. Researchers can then use this information to match participants to nearby sites with open studies. This is more effective than traditional methods, which require study sites to find their own participants.