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Writer Deborah Fries, a contributor to Penn Memory Center’s InSight newsletter and the makingsenseofalzheimers.org website, is teaching an online class, “Writing the Medical Narrative,” this winter through the Loft Literary Center.

“Medical narratives are often passports to otherness, transporting us deep into the far country of an illness,” Ms. Fries says.  “And like all good travel writing, they rely heavily on description to delineate a foreign terrain or to resonate with those who have already traveled there.”

“To understand the otherness of an illness or the unseen microscopic works of the body,” she adds, “writers rely on figurative language. The poetic metaphors, similes, and practical analogies that we make give our writing its tone, its heft—and most of all, its agency to affect the reader.”

To learn more about the class, visit the Loft Literary Center.

Congress has created a formal process to ensure that scientific judgment will guide them in future Alzheimer’s research funding. The  Alzheimer’s Accountability Act, which was fully incorporated within the fiscal year 2015 funding bill signed into law by the President on December 17, 2014, ensures that funding levels determined by Congress are based on scientific recommendations of the National Institutes of Health. Funding for Alzheimer’s research was also increased by $25 million through this bill.

For more information, click here.

Please join the university community in commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy on January 15, 2015 at noon in the Arthur H. Rubenstein Auditorium at the Smilow Center for Translational Research. This is the first in a series of talks celebrating the Perelman School of Medicine’s 250th anniversary that will address disparities through dialogue, with the goal of achieving health equity for all in the next 250 years.

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

For more information, click here.

David Satcher, MD, former director of the CDC and former Surgeon General, writes in The Hill, “Our nation is facing a far more dangerous public health crisis than Ebola, and the response has been altogether inadequate.”

“While Ebola is a potential disaster in the United States we must address decisively, Alzheimer’s disease is already today a deadly disaster for millions of American families that we have largely ignored. It is a threat to both public health and to our economy. That is what should frighten people,” he adds.

To read the full article, please click here.

What happens when you bring two medical ethicists together to discuss what it means to age with quality of life? A fascinating debate ensues.  On WHYY FM recently, two medical ethicists discussed and debated what quality of life means as we age. You can listen to Jason Karlawish, MD, Associate Director of the Penn Memory Center, and Zeke Emanuel, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, on WHYY”S The Pulse.

On Saturday, November 22, 2014, over 150 people from the Philadelphia community joined Penn Memory Center and First Corinthian Baptist Church in West Philadelphia for their Cognitive Health Fair.

The fair, which was a collaborative effort between the Center (PMC) and one of their research participants and Community Advisory Board members, Ms. Elsie Shelton, targeted local seniors to educate them on the importance of blending a healthy diet, physical exercise, and social and mental engagement to maintain both cognitive and heart health. After all, what’s good for your heart is good for your brain.

The day kicked off with words of appreciation from Pastor Thomas of First Corinthian Baptist Church and Dr. Jason Karlawish, Associate Director of the Penn Memory Center. The fair provided a variety of services to the community including:

• free glaucoma screenings from the Scheie Eye Institute
• blood pressure screenings and health education materials from Penn Geriatric’s Nurse Practitioner Johanne Louis
• giveaways and education materials provided by Penn Dental students
• healthy brain aging handouts and research opportunities from Penn Memory Center
• caregiver support resources from Jean Kirkley of Boomer R Heroes
• educational materials about AD and caregiver support from Rev. Barbara Jones of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association
• information about the Philadelphia Games which is an Olympic style event for people 50 years of age and older distributed by the City’s Parks and Recreation

For more information please contact Tigist Hailu at tigist.hailu@uphs.upenn.edu .

In a recent Today Health article, Penn Memory Center’s Jason Karlawish, MD shares his insight on what to do if you notice a loved one “slipping away” this holiday season.

“The classic story I see is when the holidays come and the older adult doesn’t do the things they traditionally have,” says Dr.  Karlawish. “For example, dad always did his special pecan pies, and when Thanksgiving comes there are no pies or they are a disaster. For many, those may be the first symptoms that show that a parent can’t do everyday tasks anymore.” You can read the article here.

Saturday, November 8, 2014, was a day to honor Penn Memory Center research participants and their study partners. More than 200 people attended the 8th annual Penn Memory Center Thank You Breakfast at the Inn at Penn.

With the theme of “Without research there can be no progress against Alzheimer’s disease or better understanding of healthy brain aging …and without you, there can be no research,” the annual invitation-only breakfast thanks research participants for their contribution to Penn’s Alzheimer’s disease research.

John Trojanowski, MD, PhD, director of Penn’s Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center; Steven E. Arnold, MD, director of the Penn Memory Center; Jason Karlawish, MD, associate director of the Penn Memory Center; David Wolk, MD, assistant director of the Penn Memory Center; Felicia Greenfield, LCSW, associate director for clinical and research operations at the Penn Memory Center; Marianne Watson, RN, PMC’s senior research nurse, and Tigist Hailu,PMC’s coordinator for diversity in research, presented the latest results from their research studies as well as updates on Penn Memory Center programs and upcoming research opportunities.

Kathleen Dunn of Wisconsin Public Radio interviewed Jason Karlawish, MD, Associate Director of the Penn Memory Center, to discuss his belief that as we age we desire not simply to pursue life, but happiness, and that medicine is important, but it’s not the only means to this happiness. You can listen to the interview here.