A report presented at a recent online European Parliament workshop reviewed amended European Union (EU) research policy and recommended ways to enhance data sharing in dementia research, according to News-Medical . Prepared by Alzheimer Europe, the report assesses legal and policy issues that dementia researchers have had to contend with since the 2013 launch of Horizon 2020 initiative. The study determined that more than €570 million has been spent in dementia research projects through Horizon 2020 to date, many of which involve the use of clinical data. Moreover, adoption of Open Data practices is inconsistent across sectors and EU member states, while a perceived lack of clarity and regulatory consistency between member states has limited the General Data Protection Regulation's ability to enable research data sharing. Further, scientists face technical, financial, and motivational hurdles to data sharing, with privacy loss a major issue. The report's recommendations include the development of channels for faster, secure sharing of data between sectors and member states. Also advised is improving digital literacy in the general populace, to ensure that older adults and vulnerable groups are kept in the loop. The report also urges greater participation of people with dementia in design, research, and data governance.

The St. Thomas Community Health Center in New Orleans turned to telemedicine technology vendor Sano Health to help senior patients avail themselves of an all-in-one mobile healthcare device that includes electronic health record (EHR) access, reports Healthcare IT News . "Sano Health's expertise in both healthcare and telehealth really shined through; they were extremely diligent in pulling back the curtain on underlying issues, both on our side and on the patient's end," said St. Thomas Community Health Center CEO Don Erwin. He continued that "their team worked hand in hand with our patient liaison to understand the issues she was experiencing, and addressed her challenges in the solution that was deployed to our patients." To address the obstacles presented by a cluttered home screen, the customized device features access to doxy.me telehealth, texting, MyHealthRecord EHR, limited voice calling, and the St. Thomas website. "Patients can now access our EHR without having to figure out how to download the app," Erwin said. The health center also made sure that the device mainly is a healthcare tool that patients can use to get in touch with healthcare providers, and access important information. "Due to the fact that the devices were so easy to use, our seniors have gravitated toward them with enthusiasm on a daily basis, with many using video conferencing for the first time, including seniors in their late 90s!" Erwin said.

Women's Alzheimer's Movement founder Maria Shriver and UsAgainstAlzheimer's co-founder George Vradenburg write in Time that U.S. President Biden's forward-thinking commitment to research cures for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia requires an Operation Warp Speed-like model to implement. Operation Warp Speed removed bureaucratic barriers to allow drug companies and federal agencies to collaboratively develop, produce, and distribute COVID-19 vaccines, and the authors see great value in following a similar process in the fight against dementia. "Incremental innovations must build on each other to deliver better treatments — as we strive toward a cure — step by step," Shriver and Vradenburg contend. They also urge Biden to "follow through on his promise of $300 billion to promote research and development, including $50 billion for the National Institutes of Health to find cures for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer, and diabetes. We know that presidential action, when coupled with bipartisan support, can lead to historic and seismic change." Shriver and Vradenburg further recommend that Biden put the fight against dementia back on the global stage, by calling on world leaders to prioritize research into cures and therapies. "Launching a new Operation Warp Speed for Alzheimer's and dementia will save millions of lives, bring economic relief to families nationwide, and re-establish global leadership in the fight against this terrible disease," the authors conclude.

WFLA reports that two stay-at-home mothers in Ohio who have dubbed themselves the "Vaccine Queens" are running a program to help seniors sign up for COVID-10 shots. "We've been able to help so many people. We're closing in on almost 500 appointments," said Marla Zwinggi of Chagrin Falls, who started the service with her pal, Stacey Bene. The effort began when Zwinggi helped her parents, then friends, and then strangers sign up for vaccines via social media. "We initially were doing it on Facebook, handwriting things out with Sharpie markers and note cards," she recalls. "I was doing a lot of copy and pasting from chat window to appointment window." Seniors older than 65 qualify for a vaccine in the state, but many are frustrated in navigating the Internet to book shots. "People are on nine or 10 lists, and they're not getting calls," Zwinggi explained. "We can help them."

Seniors 70 and older in Portland, Ore., had to deal with a slow website and major glitches earlier this week in attempting to schedule COVID-19 vaccination appointments at one of the region's two mass vaccination sites, reports OregonLive . Some seniors complained of scheduling pages taking up to 30 minutes to load, and being told appointments were already taken when clicking on available booking times. Meanwhile, all available online appointments for the Oregon Convention Center and the Portland International Airport's drive-through clinic were booked within the first hour, frustrating seniors who in some cases directed complaints to state lawmakers. Websites spokeswoman Tamara Hargens-Bradley admitted to an error that allowed people to book appointments early and left others with no slots. She added that "appointment scheduling tools did not crash this morning; however, they did slow down as they approached maximum capacity: 4,800 concurrent users each." Stephanie Hooper with nonprofit group Age+ cited Oregon's poor record in administering vaccines to seniors, and among her suggested fixes is "pausing" seniors younger than 75 from scheduling appointments until older seniors get access.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday said Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine is 66.1 percent effective in preventing moderate to severe virus disease and appears safe, reports the Wall Street Journal . The positive report is a key step toward a possible FDA authorization of the vaccine as early as this weekend, a source said. If the vaccine is approved, it will become the third authorized coronavirus shot in the United States. In its review of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the FDA confirmed it works safely by a number of measures, including against new variants of the coronavirus. A committee of outside medical specialists will meet Friday to evaluate the analyses by both the FDA and Johnson & Johnson.

A new study in the Journal of the American Heart Association found an association between consuming protein from plant-based sources rather than animal proteins and fewer deaths related to dementia and heart disease, reports ABC News . The researchers looked at more than 100,000 post-menopausal women over nearly 20 years. Those who had more protein from plant-based sources in their diet had an associated lower risk of deaths related to heart disease and dementia, and a lower risk of all-cause mortality compared to women who ate more red meat, dairy, and eggs. ABC News chief medical correspondent Jennifer Ashton said two working theories in medical and nutritional science literature seek to explain this effect. "One of them has to do with inflammatory metabolites, so these are by-products of animal protein that can then affect the heart and the brain and our blood vessels," she noted. "Another theory has to do with the gut microbiome, that good bacteria, and obviously what we eat is related to that."

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is looking for patients to help test a therapy designed to slow down Alzheimer's disease and perhaps improve memory, reports the San Diego Union Tribune . The three-year Phase 1 clinical trial of 12 patients and 12 controls will involve a form of gene therapy that will be used for the first time in humans, with subjects to be administered the genetically altered protein known was brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Healthy BDNF will be implanted within a harmless virus that will transmit the protein to specific areas of the brain where it might have a beneficial effect. The therapy will only target degenerating cells to avoid inducing possible side effects. "We are hoping that the BDNF protein will slow down or stop cell death, literally build new connections between cells in the brain and, as a result, slow down memory loss or actually improve memory," said USCD's Mark Tuszynski. He added that the process has been successful in rats, mice, and monkeys. "If in the first half of the study BDNF is shown to be safe in Alzheimer's patients we will then go on to see if it is also safe in patients with even earlier stages of memory loss, patients with mild cognitive impairment," Tuszynski noted.

A new study shows that older minorities are less likely to receive the influenza vaccine in the United States, reports HCPLive . A research team led by Salah Mahmud, Professor of Community Health Sciences and Pharmacy at the University of Manitoba, analyzed anonymized data from health care records of individuals in receipt of Medicare benefits between July 2015 and June 2016. They canvassed 26.5 million Medicare beneficiaries during the 2015-16 influenza seasons to determine that Asian-Americans (47.6 percent) African-Americans (32.6 percent), and Hispanics (29.1 percent) were less likely to receive a flu vaccine than Caucasians (49.4 percent). There were also inequities found in who was given the "more effective for individuals aged 65 and older High Dose Vaccine (or HDV)." More than half (53.8 percent) of the Caucasian individuals in this age demographic were so vaccinated compared to 40.3 percent of Asian-Americans, 41.1 percent of African-Americans, and 37.8 percent of Hispanic seniors.

A study published in Circulation warns that even low levels of air pollution can damage the health of older adults' hearts and lungs, reports United Press International . Analysis of medical records of more than 63 million Medicare patients from 2000 to 2016 determined long-term exposure to low levels of air pollution could elevate the risk of pneumonia, heart attack, stroke, and atrial fibrillation. The investigators assessed fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone, and associated each unit of increase in levels of those pollutants with thousands of hospitalizations a year. "When we restricted our analyses to individuals who were only exposed to lower concentrations of air pollution, we still found increased risk of hospital admissions with all of the studied outcomes, even at concentration levels below current national standards," said Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Mahdieh Danesh Yazdi. She added that these findings should prompt policymakers to reconsider current air pollutant standards.