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We are proud to present InSight and InSight-Light, the new newsletters of the Penn Memory Center. As the science and research covered in our newsletter continue to evolve, so does our newsletter itself.
InSight replaces the former “Quarterly.” This new name and design reflect the human interest and features on people and efforts at the Penn Memory Center and beyond, that bring the knowledge we need about Alzheimer’s disease and healthy brain aging ever closer in sight.
InSight-Light is a new, quick-read, “lighter” version of the full-size Penn Memory Center newsletter. It will come to you twice a year between our two regular InSight issues. As with the full-size InSight newsletter, you can choose to receive either a print version by mail or an electronic version via email. InSight-Light will allow us to bring you more wide-reaching, lighter features. You’ll also get concise answers to common questions about Alzheimer’s disease and healthy brain aging, more timely news on activities and offerings at the PMC, and updates from the world of Alzheimer’s disease and healthy brain aging research at large.
Features in our latest issue of InSight-Light include:
- A fascinating interview with the man who brought Alzheimer’s disease to the comics –Woody Wilson, author of Rex Morgan, M.D.
- Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia—What’s the Difference?
- Notable Outreach, Achievements, and Honors at the Penn Memory Center
- Info on clinical trials, and important roles in our research for people with normal cognition
- How you can win a $2500 Brain Game
Read and download a .pdf of this latest
issue, Fall 2009
inSight - Spring/Summer 2009
Features Included:
- Penn Memory Center families helping Penn scientists discover the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease
- Brain donation from our Latino cohort
- A new test that can be used to determine if an individual with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) will convert to AD, developed through contributions from Penn Memory Center research participants
- One donor’s special effort to go from donuts to dollars for AD research
- Thought-provoking items from the news and journals, updates on Penn Memory Center activity, recognizing your gifts, and more.
- "Why Alzheimer's Research Needs Cognitively Normal People" with brief features on some of our most dedicated normal controls, and an invitation to join us a normal control research partner.
- Profiles of three new physicians in our PENN Memory Center: Dr. Roy Hamilton, Dr. Steven Huege, and Dr. David Wolk
- Info on our caregiver skills group led by new PENN Memory Center Psychologist Melissa Gartenberg Livney, PsyD. New sessions start in 2009
- Info on the show “Alzheimer’s Disease: Facing the Facts,” an arresting and poignant look at the personal and societal impact of AD today, and what we may be facing tomorrow. This one-hour documentary, airing nationally on PBS television affiliates in 2009, has its roots in our Alzheimer’s Disease Center. It will air locally on WHYY-TV, Thursday January 22nd, 2009 at 10:00 pm.
- and more ...
- A candid and moving look at husband’s struggle with the psychiatric and emotional complications of his wife Alzheimer’s disease
- NEW Investigational Drugs studies and insight from research participants
- Transitions: a caregiver daughter must finally place her mother in a nursing facility
- How you can receive two free educational DVDs from a national project led by the PENN Alzheimer’s Disease Center
- News and Journal Items of interest
- Some thoughts from colleagues on the retirement of PENN Memory Center Director Dr. Christopher Clark
- and more ...
- Living with Mild Cognitive Impairment, and
the debate among Alzheimer’s researchers
on this condition - APOE’s role in Alzheimer’s risk, and a look
at a study of what people who learned their
APOE status did – and did not –do. - Some thoughts from a caregiver daughter
- Findings from a large study on people’s
reactions to cerebrospinal fluid sampling
through lumbar puncture (lp) - News and items from the world of AD research
- And, photos of our Research Partner
Thank You Breakfast
- and more ...
- Brain donation and how progress in Alzheimer's
research depends on it - Fascinating stories of a brain donor and donors-to-be
- A look at the CERND study now enrolling at
the PENN Memory Center - Profiles of our staff's personal involvement
in research - A look at Brain Training
- and more ...
- “We Can't Not Try”
- Antibodies target brain plaques
- Q2 & A with Dr. Steven Arnold
- Medical Care Advance Planning: Can We Talk?
- and more ...
- A view from inside Alzheimer's disease
- Creativity in dementia
- The facts, not fiction, on cerebrospinal fluid sampling
- The knowledge YOU made possible
- More
- "Normal Controls, Extraordinary People"
- The Knowledge you made Possible:IMPY
- Portrait of a Research Volunteer Extraordinare
- Where did Alzheimer's Disease Centers Come From, and Where are they Going: An Interview with Zaven Kachaturian
- More
- What does "Reduce the Risk of Cognitive Impairment" Really Mean
- Want to Maintain Your Brain? Shop!
- Women, Drink to Your Health
- A Distress-Dementia Link
- Christopher Clark, M.D., Receives Unprecendented Grant to Establish a Center of Excellence for Research on Neurodegenerative Diseases
- More
- Looking at ethical, legal, and practical considerations in assessing an individual's capacity to vote responsibly
- An agenda for public policy and education on this issue
- Information on and ways families can approach Advanced Life Planning
- A feature on basics of assisted living and an interview with a facility director
- TARP (Temple Association for Retired Persons)
- Opportunities for lifelong learning and meaningful cognitive activity
- Staff publications and awards; and descriptions of and requests to take part in various ADC research studies
- An overview of the goals of the LOAD study and Penn's role in it
- Information on the science of genetic components to dementia
- An interview with a LOAD participating family
- A "how to" on creating a multi-generation family health and disease "pedigree"
- Helping children understand Alzheimer's Disease in a loved one
- Conferences for families
- Staff publications and awards; and descriptions of and requests to take part in various ADC research studies
- Information on Memantine, a look at the clinical and ethical question of when in the course of AD is the benefit of treatment no longer valid
- Two extensive interviews conducted by Jason Karlawish with husbands of AD patients in our ADC, one of whom elected treatment with Namenda for his wife, the other, who elected to not start treatment, and their individual reasons why
- Information on Penn's participation in the .LOAD study
- A book/program review of the nationally broadcast "The Forgetting"
- Updates on staff activities, publications, and awards
- Descriptions of and requests to take part in various ADC research studies
- In the form of an exchange of email, two young women, each of whom care for a father diagnosed with AD, share their feelings and awarenesses of those experiences
- A report on the Greenwall Foundation taskforce on ethical, legal, and social issues related to voting by persons suffering dementia, of which the Education and Information Transfer Core Leader, Jason Karlawish, is a chief panelist
- Updates on cooperative efforts with the Alzheimer's Association Delaware Valley Chapter
- A review of a book on a daughter's experience with her father's AD
- Descriptions of and requests to take part in various ADC research studies
- Two articles address particular racial differences in the risk and treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, including findings on antihypertensives preserving cognitive function in African Americans
- A look at why AD risk may be higher for African Americans than whites, but without the gene association (APOE e4) more often found in whites
- Coverage on the role of hip protectors in preventing one of the most common complications of cognitive impairment, hip fracture
- An interview on the professional background and philosophies of the Education Core Leader
- Descriptions of and requests to take part in various ADC research studies
- An extensive feature on the diagnostic criteria of MCI
- An insight piece on the struggles ADC staff, and MCI-affected individuals may face, with the "labeling" terminology of patient, caregiver, etc., when impairment is so mild as to permit normal general cognitive function and activities of daily living
- Coverage of a large Dementia Care Conference held by the ADC made available as a webcast
- Updates on ongoing Penn research studies
- Reviews of books on the scientific understanding of memory and its loss, and on personal involvement with that experience
- An interview with the Penn ADC Associate Director and Clinical Core Leader, Dr. Christopher Clark
- Professional activities and publications by Penn ADC staff
- A comprehensive explanation of the Penn Brain Tissue Research Program's worldwide collaboration efforts, why donations are so necessary, and addressing common concerns families or potential donors may have related to this procedure
- A detailed look at the Penn ADC organizational and operational structure, from the National Institutes of Health level down
- An interview with the Penn Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, John Trojanowski, M.D., Ph. D., on his experience and interest in the field
- A feature on the aspects and benefits of adult day care for persons with cognitive impairment
- An interview with the Penn ADC Associate Director and Clinical Core Leader, Dr. Christopher Clark
- Information on educational/support programs for caregivers
- An explanation of the process of, and benefits to caregivers and patients from accurately assessing a patient's disease stage, with charts and a glossary to assist caregivers in making that assessment
- Report on a 2-day "Safe Return" Registration Drive, co-led by our ADC and the Alzheimer's Association, which enrolled 39 participants from our West Philadelphia neighborhoods, boosting area enrollment from 93 to 132, an increase of over 40%
- An interview with an ADC Clinical Nurse Specialist on her experience and interest in the field
- An explanation of the termination of the AN-1792 clinical trial
- Information on the new Alzheimer's Association 24-hour hotline
- Descriptions of and invitations to take part in particular ADC research studies
- A comprehensive explanation of the research efforts then and how individuals could take part
- Coverage of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, why it is important, and its related aspects, including the primary Prevention Instrument Study
- An APOE story
- A background and career philosophy feature on a Clinical Research Coordinator
- Information on staff authorship of books and articles
- Ways to operationally and financially support the ADC
- An explanation of clinically useful measures of medications, and guidelines for patients and families heartened by news of new "breakthrough" AD medications
- Cooperation with the regional Alzheimer's Association in sponsoring a support group for early-stage dementia patients, and a concomitant offering for their caregivers
- An insight feature on how personal experience shaped the professional background and philosophies of the Education Core Leader
- Information on educational offerings available on the ADC's website
Read and download a .pdf of this latest issue (20 pages), Spring/Summer 2009
Volume 6, Issue 3, Fall 2008/Winter 2009
Features Included:
Read and download a .pdf of this
issue (20 pages)
Volume 6, Issue 3, Fall 2008/Winter 2009
Volume 6, Issue 1, Spring/Summer 2008
Features Included:
Read and download a .pdf of this
issue (16 pages)
Volume 6, Issue 1, Spring/Summer 2008
Volume 5, Issue 4, Winter/Fall 2007
Features Included:
Read and download a .pdf of this
issue (16 pages)
Volume 5, Issue 4, Fall/Winter 2007
Volume 5 Issue 3, Spring 2007
Features Included:
Read and download a .pdf of this issue (16 pages) Volume 5, Issue 3, Spring 2007
Volume 5 Issue 2, Fall 2006
Features Included:
Read and download a .pdf of this issue (16 pages)
This issue includes an extended coverage insert that addresses the question, “My mother has Alzheimer’s disease. Should I tell her?”
Read and download a .pdf of this insert
Volume 5 Issue 1, Spring 2006
Features Included:
Volume 4 Issue 3, Fall 2005
Features Included:
Volume 4, Issue 2, Summer 2005
Read and download a .pdf (12 pages) of this issue
Volume 3, Issue 3, Fall 2004
Lead Story: Issues Related to Voting by persons With Cognitive Impairment
Primary Focus
Volume 3, Issue 2, Summer 2004
Lead Story: Wanted: One Thousand Dedicated Families - The Load Study
Primary Focus
Volume 3, Issue 1, Winter 2004
Lead Story: Memantine: Examining the Choices of Two Caregivers
Primary Focus
Volume 2, Issue 4, Spring 2003
Lead Story: Young Adult Caregivers
Primary Focus
Volume 2, Issue 3, Winter 2003
Lead Story: AD and African Americans
Primary Focus
Volume 2, Issue 2, Fall 2002
Lead Story: Mild Cognitive Impairment
Primary Focus
Volume 2, Issue 1, Summer 2002
Lead Story: May We Look At Your Brain? Why Brain donation, especially by non impaired persons, is needed
Primary Focus
Volume 1, Issue 4, Spring 2002
Lead Story: Staging of Dementia
Primary Focus
Volume 1, Issue 3, Winter 2001
Lead Story: National and Penn-specific AD research efforts
Primary Focus
Volume 1, Issue 2, Fall 2001
Lead Story: Clear Thinking on New Alzheimer's Disease Treatments
Primary Focus
Copyright 2006 © University of Pennsylvania Heath System. All rights reserved.
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