Dementia Researcher Vodcast

Welcome to the seventh season of the Dementia Researcher X ISTAART PIA Relay Podcast. Across six episodes, leading early career and senior researchers hand the mic from one ISTAART PIA to the next, giving you an honest, peer-to-peer tour of where dementia research is actually heading, from wearables and biomarkers to policy and trial design, in the run-up to AAIC.Series closer, and the relay comes full circle: Carla Abdelnour, who hosted episode one, returns as the guest. Carla is a clinician scientist in Barcelona and incoming Chair of the ISTAART Clinical Trials Advancement and Methods PIA, working on mixed neurodegenerative disease, particularly Lewy body and Alzheimer's pathology together. With host Sindhuja Tirumalai Govindarajan she explains why co-pathology is so common and what it means for treatment: does someone with both alpha-synuclein and Alzheimer's pathology respond to an anti-amyloid drug the same way as someone without? They discuss why she leans on fluid biomarkers, the wish for a synuclein PET tracer, and how trials might stratify or include people by co-pathology. Carla makes a useful point for anyone designing research, that clinical trial methods translate straight to observational studies, and previews the CTAM PIA's AAIC programme, including a panel and featured session on global representation in trials.TakeawaysMixed pathology is common, and co-occurring alpha-synuclein and Alzheimer's pathology may change how people respond to treatment.Trials could stratify or include people by co-pathology, but alpha-synuclein is currently detectable only in CSF, which limits that.Fluid biomarkers offer the specificity to track different proteinopathies and, potentially, response to treatment.Clinical trial design transfers straight to observational research: the same inclusion criteria, outcomes and sample-size thinking.Global representation in trials is a live priority, with a CTAM panel launching at AAIC.--The Alzheimer’s Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART) convenes the global Alzheimer’s and dementia science community. Members share knowledge, fuel collaboration and advance research to find more effective ways to detect, treat and prevent Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Professional Interest Areas (PIA) are an assembly of ISTAART members with common subspecialties or interests.There are currently 30 PIAs covering a wide range of interests and fields, from Neuroimaging to Diversity and Disparities and everything in between.Find out more at https://istaart.alz.org/--A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.Leave us a tip:https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcherWe gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

Welcome to the seventh season of the Dementia Researcher X ISTAART PIA Relay Podcast. Across six episodes, leading early career and senior researchers hand the mic from one ISTAART PIA to the next, giving you an honest, peer-to-peer tour of where dementia research is actually heading, from wearables and biomarkers to policy and trial design, in the run-up to AAIC.Lewy body pathology shows up in roughly 30% of the brains of people who had dementia, yet it gets diagnosed in only about 5% of cases. Closing that gap has shaped much of Dr Joe Kane's career. Joe is a geriatric psychiatrist at Queen's University Belfast and outgoing Chair of the ISTAART Lewy Body Dementias PIA, and with host Dr Patrick Lao he traces his work from the Diamond Lewy programme to consensus diagnostic guidelines built by Delphi process. They discuss the symptoms clinicians often miss because they don't think to ask, from constipation to loss of smell, the cardiac scans and seed amplification assays now detecting pathology in CSF and even skin, and the TOP HAT trial repurposing an anti-sickness drug for hallucinations. Joe makes the case for a Lewy body specific rating scale, explains why the prodrome may be psychiatric or delirium rather than cognitive, and runs through the PIA's biggest AAIC programme in years, including a PIA Day panel on seed amplification assays.TakeawaysLewy body dementia is heavily underdiagnosed: pathology appears in about 30% of brains but is diagnosed in around 5%.Much of the disease shows outside the brain, in constipation, blood pressure and smell, so it gets missed if nobody asks.Seed amplification assays, now usable on CSF and even a small skin biopsy, are changing how the pathology is detected.Trials can fail on the wrong yardstick, which is why the PIA is building a Lewy body specific rating scale.The prodrome is not only cognitive; the first sign can be depression, psychosis or delirium, and those gaps need data.--The Alzheimer’s Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART) convenes the global Alzheimer’s and dementia science community. Members share knowledge, fuel collaboration and advance research to find more effective ways to detect, treat and prevent Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Professional Interest Areas (PIA) are an assembly of ISTAART members with common subspecialties or interests.There are currently 30 PIAs covering a wide range of interests and fields, from Neuroimaging to Diversity and Disparities and everything in between.Find out more at https://istaart.alz.org/--A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.Leave us a tip:https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcherWe gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

Welcome to the seventh season of the Dementia Researcher X ISTAART PIA Relay Podcast. Across six episodes, leading early career and senior researchers hand the mic from one ISTAART PIA to the next, giving you an honest, peer-to-peer tour of where dementia research is actually heading, from wearables and biomarkers to policy and trial design, in the run-up to AAIC.If we cured Alzheimer's tomorrow but did no work on cost, distribution or access, we would have cured it only for the richest people in the world. That line from Lillian Morgado sits at the centre of this episode. Lillian is a research coordinator at Georgia State University and Communications Chair of the ISTAART Health Policy PIA, working mainly in qualitative research and legal epidemiology. With host Dr Vanessa Young, she talks through what qualitative work actually involves, her research on caregivers and people with dementia in the justice system, and the question that opened up next: what happens to someone with no caregiver to advocate for them. They get into why AI and blood-based biomarkers are as much policy problems as scientific ones, how regulation differs across borders, and why policy is the bridge that decides whether science reaches the people it was meant for. Lillian also runs through the Health Policy PIA's busy week at AAIC, from PIA Day to a featured research session on dementia care across countries.TakeawaysPolicy is the bridge from the lab to the patient; without it, a breakthrough only reaches the few who can already afford care.Qualitative interviews and coding surface the right questions before the big quantitative money goes in.Caregivers matter enormously when someone with dementia meets the justice system, which raises the question of those who have none.AI and blood-based biomarkers carry legal and access questions, and the rules differ between, say, the US and Europe under GDPR.You do not join a PIA because you already belong; you belong because you get involved, and you need not be an expert to contribute.--The Alzheimer’s Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART) convenes the global Alzheimer’s and dementia science community. Members share knowledge, fuel collaboration and advance research to find more effective ways to detect, treat and prevent Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Professional Interest Areas (PIA) are an assembly of ISTAART members with common subspecialties or interests.There are currently 30 PIAs covering a wide range of interests and fields, from Neuroimaging to Diversity and Disparities and everything in between.Find out more at https://istaart.alz.org/--A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.Leave us a tip:https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcherWe gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

Most people with dementia live, and many die, at home. The person who knows them best in those final months is often not a clinician but a home care worker coming through the door several times a day, doing some of the hardest work in the dementia pathway with little training and almost no research behind them. This episode asks what good home care actually looks like, why it is so hard to deliver, and what one study is doing about it.Host Dr Alice Carstairs is joined by the PALLDEM Homecare team from the Cicely Saunders Institute at King's College London: Dr Lesley Williamson, who co-leads the study; research assistant Annika Dhawan, who runs the engagement work; and Dr Clare Ellis-Smith, who developed the IPOS Dem outcome measure. They are joined by lived experience expert Alan Richardson, who cared for his mother for 15 years, and Tony O'Flaherty, director at Home Instead Wandsworth, Lambeth and Dulwich.Together they cover what IPOS Dem is, why home care gets so little attention, what it really takes to get a tool used on the ground, and why recognition for this workforce is overdue.Essential Links:Famileo - https://bit.ly/FamileoDR26PALLDEM-Homecare - https://bit.ly/4e6bdvdIPOS-Dem - https://bit.ly/4vJgkaAKey topics:Role of home care workers in dementia supportImplementation of iPOSDEM in home care settingsChallenges and solutions in home care for dementiaResearch and innovation in community dementia careThis episode is sponsored by Famileo. Helping families living with dementia stay close with a personalised printed magazine, delivered monthly. Over a quarter of a million families already use Famileo to stay connected. First month free with code DR26. https://bit.ly/FamileoDR26--A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.Leave us a tip:https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcherWe gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs--This podcast is sponsored by Famileo. The sponsor had no involvement in the planning, production, editorial decisions, or content of this episode.

This festive charity debate asks a question nobody saw coming but everyone had an opinion on. Would Santa Claus make a good principal investigator?Recorded live in the Dementia Researcher Community, this Christmas special brings humour, sharp thinking, and real reflections on leadership, research culture, ethics, and academia.The debate is hosted by Adam Smith and Dr Anna Volkmer.Speaking for the motion is Rebecca Williams, PhD researcher exploring FTD and apathy.Speaking against the motion is Dr Connor Richardson, Research Fellow working in data science, epidemiology, and machine learning in dementia research.Through opening statements, rebuttals, and audience questions, the discussion ranges from logistics and mentorship to ethics, transparency, wellbeing, and what good leadership really looks like in research. While lighthearted on the surface, the debate reveals some very familiar academic tensions beneath the tinsel.This episode was recorded as a charity event in support of Dementia UK and their Admiral Nurses, who provide vital support to people living with dementia and their families, especially during the Christmas period.Thank you for listening, watching, and supporting dementia research and care.--A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.Leave us a tip:https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcherWe gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

In this episode of the Dementia Researcher podcast we look at how dementia clinical trials reach far beyond medicines. Host Dr Annalise Rahman Filipiak speaks with Dr Elizabeth Rhodus, Dr Inga Antonsdottir, and Dr Elisa França Resende about entering the field, working with behavioural and community based interventions, and learning the skills needed to deliver rigorous, reproducible studies that still respect the individual needs of participants.The guests discuss their routes into trials, what surprised them, what they wish they had known earlier, and how mentorship and collaboration shaped their progress. They touch on trial design, regulatory processes, cultural considerations, and the value of early career networks that support researchers across different countries.Topics coveredWhat early career researchers find challenging about trial methodsWorking in homes and communitiesDesigning sensory and environmental interventionsLiteracy based trials in Brazil and issues of inclusionMentorship, networks and training programmesTrial rigour, manuals, assessments and reproducibilityRegulatory hurdles and timeframesPractical advice for researchers wanting to deliver a trial as part of their research--A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.Leave us a tip:https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcherWe gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

In this episode, host Dr Anna Volkmer is joined by Dr Alys Griffiths, Sophie Jeffery, and Esther Whittlesea Reed to explore a two-year Alzheimer’s Society project testing #psychotherapy for people with dementia.Together, they discuss the importance of therapy in #dementia care, the barriers to access, the development of new therapist competencies, and the lived experience of psychotherapy from both clinical and personal perspectives.TakeawaysPsychotherapy can provide meaningful outcomes for people with dementia.Barriers to accessing therapy include stigma and lack of understanding.Core competencies for therapists are essential for effective care.Family therapy is crucial for supporting families affected by dementia.Training for therapists should include specific skills for working with dementia patients.Research findings highlight the need for better communication about therapy options.The importance of lived experience in shaping research and therapy.Future research should focus on improving access to therapy for families.There is a need for a cultural shift in how dementia is perceived in therapy.Essential links / resources mentioned in the show:Core competences frameworkUK Council for PsychotherapyBritish Association for Counselling and PsychotherapyRecent papers on the topicSponsored by Famileo. Helping families living with dementia stay close with a personalised printed magazine, delivered monthly. Over a quarter of a million families already use Famileo to stay connected. First month free with code DR26. Visit the Famileo Website--A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.Leave us a tip:https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/supportFollow us on social media:https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.socialDownload and Register with our Community App:https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcherWe gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogsMentioned in this episode:Famileo Thank you