USA2 SPOTLIGHT 

A July 25, 2015 NPR All Things Considered segment featured UsAgainstAlzheimer’s partner and patient advocate Greg O’Brien and highlighted Alzheimer’s impact on his appetite. According to the article, “Greg O'Brien has always loved summer grilling with his family on the back porch of his home on Cape Cod, picking up hamburgers or that day's catch to savor with sweet corn and ripe tomatoes. But as his short-term memory has begun to fail, Alzheimer's disease has also begun to deaden his appetite.”

MUST READS

A July 24, 2015 The Washington Post opinion piece by Kathleen Parker underscored the need to address America’s “coming Alzheimer’s crisis.” According to Parker, “Current federal research funding is less than $600 million annually, while top scientists say they’ll need $2 billion a year to meet the association’s 2025 goal of prevention and effective treatment. There’s cause for some hope. Last month, bipartisan House and Senate subcommittees approved increasing funding to the National Institutes of Health for Alzheimer’s research by 50 percent and 60 percent, respectively…In the meantime, Congress should waste no time in correcting the travesty of too-little funding for a devastating disease that demands our urgent attention. Otherwise, what to do about Medicare will be rendered irrelevant.”

A July 24, 2015 The Washington Post opinion piece by Dwaine Rieves called for increased Alzheimer’s diagnosis despite limited treatment options. According to Rieves, “Whether the amyloid-imaging PET scan can help is not an impolite question. The scan is expensive and, like most tests, can result in errors. But the real concern, as many health-care experts have put it, is that the scan only truly helps if it allows a patient to live longer or to live better, either directly or indirectly, by leading to a change in how a patient’s care is managed. Because studies have yet to show that the PET scan improves health outcomes, many insist the scan is not helpful…Let’s just say that a correct diagnosis should at least keep their children from hearing only that their parent lost his or her mind. And when it comes to my family — to Henrietta and Ruth — a correct diagnosis even now would put all that talk of the town in my mind to rest.” Dwaine Rieves retired in 2013 as director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Division of Medical Imaging Products, where he was part of a team that reviewed clinical data on amyloid-imaging PET scans.

A July 24, 2015 News & World Report article highlighted the importance of listening and supporting “dementia voices” including Michael Ellenbogen. According to the article, “These are just a few voices with dementia. If we listen to those who are willing to speak, we’ll improve our understanding while helping to reduce the stigma. We need to remember that one’s judgment filter is not as fine due to brain cells being destroyed by Alzheimer’s disease. Just as a comedian-actor-activist invites us to yell and scream to get the attention Alzheimer’s funding needs and deserves, so too must we listen with compassion and understanding to people with dementia.”

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A July 25, 2015 The Guardian article reported that solanezumab data had lead "to calls for improved testing to identify those who would benefit from slowing of mental decline.” According to the article, “Major improvements must be made in techniques for identifying future Alzheimer’s disease patients if medicine is to take advantage of drugs that could inhibit or halt their mental decline. This warning was made last week by several senior scientists after the announcement by the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly that its drug, solanezumab, had been shown to stave off memory loss in patients with mild Alzheimer’s.”

A July 24, 2015 Los Angeles Times article reported that “UC San Diego won a major legal battle Friday against USC when a judge ruled that control of a landmark project on Alzheimer's disease belongs to the La Jolla school.”