Penn Memory Center

Welcome to the team! Perri Wein recently joined the Penn Memory Center as a Clinical Research Coordinator. She administers neuropsychological assessments for various research protocols. Prior to joining the PMC, Perri was an intramural research training award fellow at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. At NINDS, she was involved in research studying the neurological effects of HIV. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and Jewish studies at Gratz College, WITS campus in 2019.

Join us for the Pennsylvania Department of Aging and the PA Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Task Force for the 2020 Virtual Forum. Racial Disparities & Inequities in Early Detection, Diagnosis, and Treatment Today, November 5, 2020 | 9:30 am-12:00 pm... Register: https://bit.ly/3ekpC6t

Best wishes to Mitali Purohit as her time at PMC comes to a close. Mitali joined PMC in 2018 as a Clinical Research Coordinator. She administered cognitive and neurological assessments to research participants and patients.

Are advance directives for people living with dementia useful? Clinicians and philosophers struggle to answer this ethically charged question. A recent essay suggests an entirely new approach to answering this question. The authors include Penn Memory Center Co-Director Jason Karlawish, MD, and his colleague David Lyreskog, Ph.D. Advance directives are documents prepared to guide care for someone who is unable to make their own health care decisions. They contain informatio...n about the person’s preferences for care. They’re also called a living will. They have an obvious appeal to guide the care of persons living with dementia, a condition that stereotypically impairs decision-making abilities. Normally, autonomy the attitudes and preferences a person holds close is assumed to be situated solely in the person herself. This perspective causes problems when trying to use advance directive documents to safeguard the autonomy of persons living with dementia. Over the course of a neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s disease, something happens to autonomy in persons living with dementia. It transfers to different people, particularly to their caregivers. People with dementia experience more dynamic and interpersonal autonomy than many philosophical theories would like us to believe. Additionally, instances of paradoxical lucidity when a patient experiences a period of spontaneous connectedness raises the question: if the ‘severely demented’ patient is deemed irreversibly non-competent, how do we explain the apparent clarity of thought? the authors wrote. And, more importantly, how would we even recognize this clarity of thought, and expression of autonomy, if there is nobody dear to recognize it as authentic? The unique nature of autonomy between the patient and the caregiver interested the researchers. One could view it as the patient gradually losing autonomy, and as the caregivers stepping in and ‘covering’ for the patients, the authors wrote. A new relationship between the patient and the caregiver then emerges as the caregiver begins to take over the tasks and decision-making on behalf of the patient. But on another view, we can understand this autonomy relationship between patient and caregiver as preexisting, where the autonomy of the patient is increasingly supported rather than substituted by their caregiver. The authors hope that this new theoretical understanding of autonomy between the patient and the caregiver can help clinicians interpret advance directives. A view on advance directives is needed that does justice to the lived experiences of patients, kids, and kin, as well as caregivers, the authors wrote. Each of these need to be understood as being in relation and being part of each other’s autonomy. https://bit.ly/3e7xfwR

Welcome to the team! Varshini Chellapilla is a staff writer at the Penn Memory Center with a focus on digital and print media. She comes to the center with journalism, communications, and publishing experience. Chellapilla earned her bachelor's degree in journalism from Penn State in 2020. Her writing has been published by PublicSource, Centre Daily Times and Penn State News.

The University of Pennsylvania Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) will fund up to two developmental projects in the 2021-2022 academic year, pending availability of funds, to support basic, translational, or clinical research within the theme of heterogeneity in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) continuum. Consideration will also be given for projects not focused on heterogeneity but that are novel, focus on an area of research underrepresented in the ADRC or at Penn, and are... transdisciplinary and expand the breadth of collaborations. Clinical trials are NOT permitted. Each developmental project will be funded for up to $75,000/year for direct costs. The goal of these grants is to assist investigators in obtaining preliminary data to serve as the basis of a grant application to the NIH or another public or private agency. Funding decisions are based on scientific merit and the likelihood the project will lead to additional independent funding to continue the research beyond the end date of the developmental project. Applications are due Feb. 8. Click here for more information: https://bit.ly/3mtjKL3

The latest from Penn Memory Center Co-Director Jason Karlawish: "Before COVID, nearly 18 million people were caregivers. In just a few months, COVID has amplified the burdens of caregiving in America. And yet, as bad as things are, I’m cautiously optimistic. These awful events might inspire America’s leaders to finally strive to achieve a greater good. This election could undo bitter partisan warfare COVID should put an end to this decades-long neglect. ... Our common story is that caregivers are essential workers. Politicians need to listen to these stories." Read the full essay in The Hill: https://bit.ly/3mAaYuI

Welcome to the team! Cait is an Editorial Intern at the Penn Memory Center. She assists in managing the content of the Penn Memory Center website and creating e-newsletters. Prior to working at PMC, Cait earned a B.S in Psychology from Allegheny College and completed a post-baccalaureate year in Communication Science and Disorders at the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently enrolled in a Master's of English in Professional Writing program at Northern Arizona University. Cait plans to pursue a career in health communications.

Welcome to the team! Alyssa LaMont is a first-year Communications and Social Media Marketing Intern at the Penn Memory Center. Alyssa graduated from Saint Joseph's University with her Bachelor of Arts in English with a focus on Communications in 2019. Alyssa now attends Rosemont College for her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Alyssa has worked with a variety of Philadelphia’s industry leaders, holding positions in Public Relations, Communications, Marketing, Advertising, Content Creation, Web Design, and Social Media Management. She plans to use her experience to create her own business and find a career in traveling and exploring what the world has to offer.

PMC Neurologist Dr. Roy Hamilton talks with WHYY News' The Pulse about confronting implicit biases. As a nation, we’re having more meaningful conversations about racism. Part of that means talking about implicit bias assumptions and stereotypes that may influence our decisions and actions without us even realizing it. In a recent study, Dr. Hamilton sought to change and manipulate people’s biases through a smartphone app that targeted biases toward facial abnormalities and... racial identities, among other factors. To hear about their findings, click the link below for the full interview. Skip to 36:19 for their segment. https://whyy.org/episodes/confronting-implicit-biases/

Caring for someone that may be cognitively declined? Assisting Cognitively Impaired Individuals with Voting: A Quick Guide was developed through a collaborati...on between the American Bar Association's Commision on Law and Aging and the Penn Memory Center. These techniques are especially important when interacting with persons who are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or other brain illnesses and disorders such as stroke or head injury. #caregiving #election2020 #alzheimers https://www.americanbar.org//law_agi/2020-voting-guide.pdf

Virginia Man-Yee Lee, PhD, professor of Alzheimer’s Research in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, was named among the 76 most influential people in the region by Philadelphia Magazine. https://www.phillymag.com/influential-philadelphians/

A collaborative effort is seeking nominations for people with dementia and their caregivers to participate in a panel that will engage with researchers in an attempt to improve the design of research and clinical trials. These research interventions could then, in turn, improve the lives of the patients and their loved ones. The National Institute on Aging - NIH IMbedded Pragmatic Alzheimer’s disease and AD Related Dementias Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Collaboratory and the Alzh...eimer’s Association are jointly organizing the Lived Experience Panel to provide feedback to researchers and discuss methods for studying non-medication interventions that can improve the quality of life of patients and their loved ones. The Penn Memory Center (PMC) has been actively involved with IMPACT to support efforts to conduct pragmatic clinical trials of interventions with healthcare systems for those living with dementia and their caregivers. Drs. Jason Karlawish, co-director of PMC, and Emily Largent, a Christopher M. Clark scholar at PMC, lead the ethics and regulation core of the Collaboratory. Kristin Harkins, a PMC research program manager, serves as the project manager for the core. All participants are requested to be committed to the panel for one year. Participation will include training regarding the goals of the Lived Experience Panel, four quarterly 90-minute meetings, a review of pre-meeting materials, and evaluation of each meeting soon after it has completed. More information about the panel can be found here (https://bit.ly/31TKY5O)and frequently asked questions can be found here (https://bit.ly/2HLYvW7). Interested participants may complete the nomination form available on the website. (https://bit.ly/35KNT1B)