MUST READS

A July 10, 2015 The Economist article takes us around the world to show how Alzheimer's and dementia is a global problem. According to the article, "To spread the cost, Japan has introduced a compulsory insurance scheme that pays for long-term care for people with dementia. And to save the elderly from ending up in anobasuteyama, or granny-dump mountain, the country has trained 5.4m volunteers who offer some respite to sufferers and their carers and look out for wanderers—those who have got lost and cannot remember where they live." [Behind paywall]

A July 9, 2015 Politico Magazine op-ed by Rep. John Boehner focuses on the bipartisan virtue of the 21st Century Cures legislation and its promise for revolutionizing healthcare. According to Rep. Boehner, "Medical technology has undergone a vast transformation in recent decades, but it is being throttled by an outdated bureaucracy that hasn’t kept pace. Today, it takes 15 years for a new drug to move from the lab to the local pharmacy. The 21st Century Cures initiative aims to shorten that time, in part, by modernizing clinical trials."

A July 10, 2015 Business Insider article highlights a decline in funding for research and development as part of the federal US budget from 1968 to 2015. While some say this is an unfair comparison with priorities during the Cold War and ignores modern privatization, the author believes that private companies are too focused on showing immediate results to the detriment of long-term theoretical science. According to the author, "Many researchers are particularly concerned about both a dropoff in funding for what’s known as 'basic' or 'fundamental' research, science pursued just for the sake of greater understanding, as well as a lack of appreciation by the public for science that’s not directed at an immediate practical endpoint."

POLICY AND POLITICS 

A July 9, 2015 New York Times article describes Hillary Clinton's lean to the left across many issues, including increased funding for public medical research. According to the Times, "Nearly 20 years after President Bill Clinton declared that 'the era of big government is over,' Hillary Rodham Clinton is proposing muscular federal policies that would require hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending and markedly expand Washington’s influence in a host of areas, from universal prekindergarten to Alzheimer’s disease research."

A July 9, 2015 Washington Examiner article by Rep. Joe Pitts describes his contributions to 21st Century Cures and his continued support for the legislation. According to Rep. Joe Pitts, "We have learned that with targeted investments in research, coupled with regulatory reforms and road maps for greater collaboration among patients, researchers and regulators, we can make tremendous progress in discovering and developing new cures and treatments. Importantly, the 21st Century Cures Act is fully paid for and includes important entitlement reforms. When the innovation fund sunsets in five years, we should be firmly on the path to cures."

A July 9, 2015 Centre Daily Times article highlights the pushback 21st Century Cures is receiving from some conservative activists who are concerned the funding will become permanent and not temporary as supporters hope. According to the coverage, "The Congressional Budget Office estimates that enacting the 21st Century Cures Act would cost $106.4 billion over five years. But the budget office also calculated that cost savings included in the legislation ultimately would reduce direct spending by $11.9 billion over 10 years. [Heritage Action Spokesman Dan Holler] says those estimates are misleading because they assume that the five-year funding increases for NIH and FDA won’t become permanent."

REGIONAL 

A July 9, 2015 St. Louis Today article covers the "damned if you do" and "damned if you don't" situation today of honoring money transfers for people who may be suffering with Alzheimer's and Missouri's attempt to stop the scammers. According to the local story, "Brokerages are often hamstrung by the problem. Calling concerned family members to question a client’s instructions may violate laws about protecting privacy along with rules that require processing transactions on time, industry compliance professionals said. But following the client’s instructions can lead the customer to fall victim to a con or abusive caretaker, industry leaders have said."

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND MATH 

A July 9, 2015 Cult of Mac post highlighted the potential of the iPhone app ResearchKit to transform advance medical research. According to the story, "Apple brought out ResearchKit in March. It lets users privately share their medical data with researchers studying diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s."