MUST READS 

A December 6, 2016 Star Tribune article reported that “The 21st Century Cures Act, which speeds up approval of medical devices and drugs and sets up a sweeping medical research framework for everything from Alzheimer’s disease to opioid addiction, passed the last technical barrier to adoption in the U.S. Senate Monday.”

A December 6, 2016 Medical Xpress article reported that a “study confirmed for the first time that two molecules assumed to contribute to the disease process are both present at very early stages of Alzheimer's in an area of the brain that is involved in memory formation and information processing.” According to Professor Bettina Platt, “In the field of Alzheimer's and dementia research there has been a long-running battle regarding the two main suspects that might cause brain cells to die - tau and amyloid. These two have never been brought together in human cases, and the relationship between them has not been clear. Our observations therefore consolidate conflicting evidence from other studies on the role of the proteins in the disease process and strongly support a notion of an early stage interaction between the two.”

A December 6, 2016 McKnight’s Senior Living article reported that “Neurotrack Technologies has announced the unveiling of an app that can conduct Alzheimer's screenings in as little as five minutes.”

A December 5, 2016 The New York Times article highlighted the work of photographer Maja Daniels who spent a year photographing hospital wards devoted to dementia care. 

A December 5, 2016 Fox News article reported that “Dementia patients who get prescriptions from multiple health systems may face a higher risk of drug mix-ups or unsafe interactions than people with cognitive problems who get all their medications from one place, a study of U.S. veterans suggests.”

A December 5, 2016 The Wall Street Journal opinion piece by L. Rafael Reif underscored the importance of investing in medical research. According to Reif, “If we hope for technological solutions in the future to some of humanity’s great challenges—Alzheimer’s, cancer, infectious disease, cybersecurity, safe nuclear power, climate change, water and food for the world—we must renew our national commitment to supporting basic science.” [behind paywall]