Leading Authority On Alzheimer's Disease To Present At Community Lecture

Main Category: Alzheimer's / Dementia
Article Date: 12 Jun 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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Jason Karlawish, M.D., associate professor of medicine, University of Pennsylvania, will share the latest information on Alzheimer's disease at a community lecture at 1 p.m., Wednesday, June 10 at Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave., Shadyside. The event is free and open to the public.

Part of the Jay L. Foster Memorial Lecture in Alzheimer's disease, Dr. Karlawish's talk, "The Making and Unmaking of Alzheimer's Disease," will focus on the quality of life and treatment challenges the disease poses to society, families and patients. The lecture series was established by the family of Jay L. Foster, a Pittsburgh businessman who died from the disease in 2000, and aims to offer support and information for family members, caregivers and others who face the daily struggle of dealing with Alzheimer's.

Dr. Karlawish, director of education, recruitment and retention at the Alzheimer's Disease Center at Penn, is an expert on medical decision making and research ethics related to memory disorders. He is a member of the ethics committees of the American Geriatrics Society and the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study Group. He has published numerous studies on competency and dementia care, and received many awards for his work, including the Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholarship in Bioethics and the Lancet's Wakley prize.

Following the lecture, faculty and staff from the University of Pittsburgh Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health's Center for Healthy Aging will comment and answer audience questions.

The Foster family established the lecture series after learning firsthand that knowledge about Alzheimer's disease is an important factor in coping with its effects on the family, especially the pain of watching a loved one decline. They hope that caregivers, family members, residential treatment staff and other health professionals will be aided by the talks, which are managed by GSPH through the support of the Foster Charitable Trust.

Source
University of Pittsburgh

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