25th International Conference of Alzheimer's Disease International

Speakers

Peter J S Ashley

Peter J S Ashley Peter Ashley developed an interest in Mental Health and particular Dementia a decade ago after he was diagnosed with early stage dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). He has retired from business where for the last ten years of his working life he was the Group Technical Director of a public computing PLC. Graduating in Electronics and Mathematics he is a member of several Chartered Institutions and at 74 prides himself on the fact that he has managed, in spite of his condition, to keep up to date with technology since his retirement. His expertise has been valued in many areas, particularly in health, social care and the application of technology.

On the Health and Social Services front he has dedicated much of his energy to exclusively furthering the cause of those with mental health problems and more specifically those who have dementia. In 2001 he was appointed a Council Member and Trustee of the UK Alzheimer’s Society (now retired) and he is now proud to be a Society Ambassador. He spends much of his time making presentations to meetings throughout the whole of the UK and internationally; he has given plenary presentations at Alzheimer’s disease International (ADI), and at Alzheimer’s Europe Conferences. He is also a member the Lewy Body Society, the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, giving presentations throughout Ireland and is an Associate of Innovations in Dementia CIC.

As a member of Alzheimer Europe he sat on their working group on Advanced Directives; he was a member of the NHS/SCIE National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Dementia Guideline Development Group who produced their definitive Guideline in November 2006 used throughout the England, Wales and Northern Ireland in both Health and Social Care; subsequently an advisor to the National Audit Office when producing their NAO Report on Dementia. He is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatry Memory Services National Accreditation Programme group. He was a member of the DoH National Diagnostics Board and was initially on the NHS ‘Choice’ working group. He also sits on the Electronic Social Care Records Implementation Board (ESCR) for the Department of Health. More recently he has served as a member of the Dementia Strategy External Reference Group set up by Ivan Lewis; their consultative report was released in June 2008 which culminated in the government’s proposal in February 2009. He has had many articles published one of the latest being a chapter in the “2009 Oxford Textbook of Old Age Psychiatry”. He is a member of DeNDRoN (the Dementia and Neurodegenerative Disease Network)

He is concerned with developing communication strategies, taking advantage of the new technologies that are challenging us today. He has chaired meetings and has assisted web development teams in promoting use the of Internet and Intranets which are an increasingly important communication tool for people within all aspect of health, dealing with problems that require communication between professional, patients (service users) and their carers alike. He has a keen interest in the development of assistive technology and ‘walking’ technologies and through his own consortium of technology consultants (AE Consultants) is developing products for a whole variety of assistive and training purposes.

He works extensively in other areas of health and social care and was appointed by the NHS Appointments Board as a Non-Executive Director of Warrington Primary Health Care Trust for the period April 2002 to September 2006. This period of 4½ years has given him grounding in the workings of the Department of Health and the NHS plus its developing relationship with Social Care provision.

He is proud to be the Patron of the South West Yorkshire Mental Health Collaborative (their “Portrait of a Life” is a new Life History Toolkit to be launched in spring 2010); he shares a particular interest in developments in after care both in the community and care home settings.

Peter is a Governor of his local Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Prof. dr. Rose-Marie Dröes

Prof. dr. Rose-Marie Dröes is professor of Psychosocial care for people with dementia at the Department of Nursing home medicine of the VU University medical centre in Amsterdam. She is head of the research programme Care and support in dementia of the department of Psychiatry of the VU University medical center and the regional Mental Health Care Institute GGZ inGeest partners from VUmc in Amsterdam.
Since 1990 she was a project leader of several large-scale studies into the needs of people with dementia, emotion-oriented care in nursing homes, the meeting centers support programme for community dwelling people with dementia and their carers, and several projects focusing on need-based ICT-support for people with dementia, such as Evaluation of assistive technology in small scale living arrangements for people with dementia and the European COGKNOW project. She published over 200 papers in (inter)national scientific and professional journals, books and conferences in this area. She received several awards for her scientific and innovative work in psychogeriatrics.

Esme Moniz-Cook

Esme Moniz-Cook has been practising as a Clinical Psychologist for twenty-nine years, specialising with older people (dementia), since 1987. She is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Ageing at the Institute of Rehabilitation, Hull York Medical School and Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Humber Mental Health Teaching NHS Trust. She leads a memory clinic that provides psychosocial interventions for older people with suspected dementia and their families and a five year National Institute of Health Research Programme Grant Challenge –Demcare to develop functional analysis as a treatment for challenging behaviour for use by staff working with family carers and in care homes.

In 1999 she developed and is now coordinating Chair of INTERDEM a pan European interdisciplinary Network of research - practitioners whose focus is on Timely Intervention in Dementia. With INTERDEM authors, the evidence base for Early Psychosocial Intervention in dementia was published by Jessica Kingsley in 2008 and a key article on outcome measurement in dementia care was also published in Ageing and Mental Health in 2008.

Paul Francis

Paul Francis has spent nearly 30 years researching the dementia and is now Professor of Neurochemistry at Kings College London. His current research focuses on changes in brain chemistry that underlie cognitive and behavioural symptoms in people with dementia.

He is also director of Brains for Dementia Research a GBP2.3 million investment in brain banking by the UK Alzheimer’s Society and the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.

Sam Gandy

Sam Gandy, M.D., Ph.D., Mount Sinai Professor of Alzheimer’s Disease Research, Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry, and Associate Director of the Mount Sinai Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in New York City. Dr. Gandy is Chairman Emeritus of the Alzheimer’s Association’s Medical and Scientific Advisory Council

Dr. Gandy is an international expert in the metabolism of the sticky substance called amyloid that clogs the brain in patients with Alzheimer’s. In 1989, Gandy and his team discovered the first drugs that could lower formation of amyloid. These drugs were based on Dr. Gandy’s discovery that nerve cell communication regulates amyloid generation on a moment-to-moment basis. Dr. Gandy has written more than 150 original papers, chapters and reviews on this topic, and he has received continuous NIH funding for his research on amyloid metabolism since 1986.

Jean Georges

After finishing his B.A. in English and European Literature at the University of Essex (United Kingdom) in 1989, Jean GEORGES lived in Brussels, Belgium, where he trained with the Directorate General for Information, Culture and Communication of the European Commission and in Barcelona, Spain, where he worked as a tour guide in order to improve his Spanish.

Since 1996, he has been working as the Executive Director for Alzheimer Europe and has been the project manager of the various European projects run by the organisation. In this capacity, he has been liaising with various other European organisations, and in 2000, he was elected to the Board of the European Federation of Neurological Associations and was its Secretary General from 2002 to 2004. In 2003, he was also elected to the Executive of the European Patients’ Forum, a post he held until 2008. In 2003, he was appointed to the BMJ Patient Advisory Panel and to the EMEA working group with patient organizations and in 2004 to the EFNS task force for the revision of its dementia guidelines. Finally, in 2005, he was appointed by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament as one of two patient representatives to the Management Board of the European Medicines Agency until 2008.

Frank Jessen

Prof. Frank Jessen has studied medicine at the University of Saarland, Germany. He has specialized in Psychiatry and has been the head of the clinical Alzheimer’s Disease research group at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn since 2002.

He is holds a Professorship for Clinical Dementia Research at the University of Bonn and is affiliated with the National Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Bonn. His main areas of research are neuroimaging and risk factor identification in clinical and population-based contexts.

Within the last 10 years, he has published over 100 original research articles with the main focus on dementia.

Sadao Katayama

Sadao Katayama 1985 Bachelor of Medicine, Medical Department of Hiroshima University. 1988 Research Associate of the Third Dept. of Int. Med. at Medical Dept. of Hiroshima University.

2003 Assistant Professor of the Third Dept. of Int. Med. at Med. Dept. of Hiroshima University. Participate in Hiroshima Branch of Japan Alzheimer’s Association along with the association of people with dementia on their early on-set in order to support them and their family.
2005 Director of Dept. of Neurology at National Hospital Organization (NHO) Yanai Hospital.
2007 General Manager of Clinical Research and Director of Dept. of cognitive disorders at NHO Hiroshima-Nishi Medical Center.
Fellow and Board Certified Senior Member of the Japanese Neurology.
A member of the working team for increasing sophistication of care for dementia.

Pekka Laine

Pekka Laine Mr. Laine is Honorary Chairman of the Alzheimer Society of Finland. He was elected to Acting Chairman of the AGM for 2010. He was Acting Vice Chairman of AGM in 1997 and Chairman of the Board 1998-2007. He has been the Vice Chairman of the board of Brain Rehabilitation center Neuron in Kuopio 1998-2007. Mr. Laine was the member of ADI Board 2005-2009 and member of the board of Alzheimer Europe 2000-2010 acting as Honorary Treasurer 2002-2006.

Mr. Laine held several leading positions in Finnish paper and metal industry as well as he was board or advisory board member in many companies, banks and insurance companies.

Barry Reisberg

Barry Reisberg, M.D. has directed research over the past three decades which has significantly advanced current understanding and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). He was the first to describe many of the most important symptoms of AD and the characteristic clinical course of the disease. His staging tools are presently governmentally mandated measures throughout the U.S., in some Canadian and European provinces, and recommended in Japan.
Dr. Reisberg’s work has been instrumental in the worldwide development of all three major current pharmacological treatment modalities for AD, i.e., glutamatergic antagonist treatment (memantine), treatment for behavioral disturbances in dementia (e.g., risperidone), and in the development and approval of cholinesterase inhibitor treatment (e.g., rivastigmine for mild to moderate dementia and donepezil for severe dementia). For example, Dr. Reisberg was the principal designer and Principal Investigator of the pivotal trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which resulted in the US and European Union approval of the first treatment for advanced AD, memantine.

Dr. Reisberg and his associates developed the concepts behind and coined the terminology, “mild cognitive impairment,” a now universally recognized entity. His descriptions of an even earlier clinically manifest stage - “subjective cognitive impairment,” are increasingly being recognized as the earliest manifestations of AD in seemingly normal persons. At the other end of the severity spectrum, Dr. Reisberg’s staging procedures have been used in all pivotal worldwide trials of currently approved medications for advanced AD. Dr. Reisberg’s description of the retrogenic neurodevelopmental process in AD and related dementias is also advancing a new science of AD management and providing new insights into AD etiopathogenesis.
Dr. Reisberg has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards for his pioneering research including a Lifetime Achievement Award for Research in Alzheimer’s disease from the major worldwide organizations in the field.

Dr. Reisberg is the Director of the Clinical Core of the US National Institute on Aging (NIH) funded Alzheimer’s Disease Center of the New York University School of Medicine and Clinical Director of the Aging and Dementia Research Center of the Silberstein Institute of the NYU School of Medicine. He serves as Professor of Psychiatry at NYU. Dr. Reisberg is also Director of the Zachary and Elizabeth M. Fisher Alzheimer's Disease Education and Resources Program at the NYU School of Medicine. Additionally, Dr. Reisberg is an Adjunct Professor at the McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal, Canada.
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Dr Paraskevi Sakka

Dr Paraskevi Sakka obtained her diploma in Medicine from the University of Athens in 1977 and specialty title in Neurology and Psychiatry in 1982. She spent one year at the Cambridge University Psychiatric Hospital, UK (1982-83). Since December 1983 she has worked at the Neurology Department of Athens Veterans Hospital where she has organized and directed a Memory Clinic (1997-2003). She obtained her Ph.D. degree from the Medical University of Athens in 1996: “HM-PAO SPECT in dementia”. Since October 2003 she has been Director of the Department of Neurodegenerative Brain Diseases – Memory Clinic of Hygeia Hospital, Athens Greece. Her scientific activities spread over a number of areas and she has participated as invited speaker in a number of national and international conferences. She has published numerous Greek and English papers. She participates in Greek and international research projects for dementia, in pharmacological as well as in clinical aspects. Her research interests include the functional imaging of the brain (SPECT, PET), dementia biomarkers and non pharmacological treatments of dementia. She is particularly interested in the social dimension of dementia and the burden imposed on the caregivers. She has founded the Athens Association of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders and she has been continuously elected Chairwoman, since 2002.

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Angela Clayton-Turner

Angela Clayton-Turner Angela trained as a physiotherapist and her career included working in psychiatry. This experience was called upon when her husband developed Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 57. He now lives in a dementia care home and Angela copes by doing voluntary work related to dementia, research and carers’ issues.

Pieter Jelle Visser

Pieter Jelle Visser graduated as medical doctor and clinical epidemiologist. He currently works as assistant professor at the department of Psychiatry of the Maastricht University Medical Centre in Maastricht, and the department of Neurology of the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His main research interests are the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in subjects who do not have dementia yet and the design of trials for treatment of early Alzheimer’s disease. He has been coordinator of several European multicentre studies on Alzheimer’s disease and is member of the executive board of the European Alzheimer’s disease consortium. He has co-authored 50 peer-reviewed publication or book chapters in the field of Alzheimer’s disease.

Michael Valenzuela

Michael Valenzuela Dr Valenzuela is a Research Fellow in Regenerative Neuroscience at the School of Psychiatry, UNSW. His background is in psychology, clinical medicine and neuroscience research. Dr Valenzuela’s PhD focused on the topic of brain reserve and for this work he was awarded the prestigious Eureka Prize for Medical Research in 2006.

Dr Valenzuela’s current research interests are aimed at understanding the competing forces of brain plasticity and degeneration in the human brain. In particular, he is interested in how we can use the science of neuroplasticity to help prevent dementia in the first place. He has recently chaired a NSW Health’s steering committee to introduce a new dementia prevention public education campaign, has published over 30 scientific papers, attracted over $1 million in research funds, and is the author of the best-selling popular science book ‘It’s Never too Late to Change Your Mind’ which details the latest medical thinking about what you can do to avoid dementia (ABC Books 2009).

Professor Bengt Winblad

Professor Bengt Winblad, MD, PhD has been involved in the field of dementia research for many years. After pre-clinical medical studies in Vienna, Austria, he became MD 1971 and took his PhD in 1975 at the University of Umeå, Sweden, where he became a Docent in 1977 and Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Chief Physician in 1982. Bengt Winblad has since been a guest professor at the Department of Psychiatry in Frankfurt and honorary professor at Beijing University, Wuhan University and Shanghai University in China. Since 1987, he is working in Stockholm, Sweden as Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet and is Chief Physician at Karolinska University in Huddinge.

Professor Winblad has been involved in numerous professional appointments and university activities. These have included being a member of the Advisory Committee for the Medical Research Council. He is co-chairing the European Alzheimer Disease Consortium (EADC) and presently chairing the Medical Scientific Advisory Panel of the Alzheimer Disease International (ADI). He is also a member of the Nobel Assembly for the Prize of Medicine and Physiology at the Karolinska Institutet. Professor Winblad is the Head of the KI-Alzheimer Disease Research Center in Huddinge including KASPAC (KI Dainippon Sumitomo Alzheimer Center), as well as the Director of the Swedish Brain Power research network.

Bengt Winblad’s research interests focus on the epidemiology, genetics and treatment of dementia conditions, especially Alzheimer’s disease. He has been presented with a number of awards for his contribution to this research area, which have included the Swedish Society of Medicine Alzheimer Award, the Royal Swedish Academy of Medical Sciences Award, the Alois Alzheimer Award, the Swedish Society of Medicine Award and the IPA Recognition Award for Service to the Field of Psychogeriatrics. He has taken the initiative regarding pharmaceutical treatment of patients with severe Alzheimer’s disease. Professor Winblad has been a tutor for more than 150 PhD dissertations and has published more than 1000 original publications in the field of gerontology/geriatrics/dementia research

Bengt Winblad was recently ranked the world’s most profilic researcher in the Alzheimer field (J Alzheimer’s Disease 2009).

Bob Woods

Bob Woods has been a practicing clinical psychologist in the UK working with older people for 35 years, training and working initially in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, before moving to London where he worked at the Institute of Psychiatry and University College. He has been Professor of Clinical Psychology of Older People at Bangor University since 1996. Current research primarily concerns the development and evaluation of therapeutic approaches for people with dementia and their care-givers. He continues to practice clinically, working in a Memory Clinic. He is Co-Director of the Dementia Services Development Centre for Wales. His publications include over 100 journal articles and book chapters and a number of books, on dementia care and clinical psychology with older people. He has written training materials for care home staff and guides for family caregivers. He is a member of the Medical & Scientific Panels of Alzheimer Europe and ADI, and in the UK is an Alzheimer’s Society Ambassador.