Must reads

• A September 10, 2014 The Chicago Tribune letter-to-the-editor by Ann Kuta underscored the need to pass the Alzheimer’s Accountability Act, Senate Bill 2192. According to Kuta, "My stake is personal. Friday, Sept. 12 marks two years since my mother died of Alzheimer's disease. We all have an interest in this: More than five million people are currently living with this disease, including perhaps 200,000 people under the age of 65. Unless we find a treatment, those numbers could rise to more than 15 million by 2050. We can’t afford to not fund research or find treatments and answers. I hope that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) will both co-sponsor this bill and join the thousands of Illinoisans who are relying on them to help fund and find an end for Alzheimer’s."
• A September 10, 2014 Roll Call article mapped the impact of NIH funding across the nation. According to the article, "A medical research advocacy group, United for Medical Research, this week updated its state-by-state map of NIH research funding flowing to each state and supporting an estimated 400,000 jobs. California and Massachusetts lead in receipt of NIH research grants and the larger states dwarf the totals for Idaho, Wyoming and Alaska. NIH has established an award program that seeks to ship research dollars to 23 states with a poor track record of competing for NIH grant money. However, parsing out medical research outside of the NIH also amplifies the nationwide impact of any reductions in the NIH budget." Interactive map here. 
• A September 10, 2014 statement from the office of Congressman Chaka Fattah highlighted a meeting with World Dementia Council Envoy Dennis Gillings and George Vradenburg. According to the statement, "Fattah and Dr. Gillings, who was appointed as the World Dementia Envoy by the UK Prime Minister earlier this year, discussed their commitment to bringing world leaders together to fight the disease and set out a series of three priorities where they can take immediate action. Joining the meeting were Jon Rouse, Director General for Social Care at the UK Department of Health, and Alzheimer’s advocate George Vradenburg, co-founder of USAgainstAlzheimer’s, a community of activists committed to advancing federal policy and research with a goal of ending Alzheimer’s by 2020.They agreed that the United States and other countries must work together to expand open collaboration on dementia research and clinical trials in order to create a bigger data set for worldwide use. Gillings and Rouse said the impact of such a resource would be “tremendous.”"