KOB-TV 4 reports that the state of New Mexico's long-term care ombudsman program has issued a call for volunteers to help senior citizens during the pandemic. Anyone 18 and older who can pass a criminal background check can participate in the program. New Mexico requires 300 volunteers. "We talk to staff, and we talk to the administrators, and we do window visits with residents, and we advocate for your rights, and so we give you a training program we train you on, on how to do that," said Aging and Long-Term Services Secretary Katrina Hotrum-Lopez. Once someone has completed training, they will volunteer for three hours a week."Not only will you assist someone in getting better care, but it's so rewarding.

A Langley, British Columbia, woman wants to lift the spirits for seniors in care communities during the pandemic and the current holiday season, reports News 1130 . Danielle Axton, the memory living manager at Chartwell Langley Gardens, has launched a Christmas card campaign and is looking for participants. "I have visions of us sitting around a table and opening the cards together and then putting them on the wall for everybody to enjoy and reminisce," she said. There are more than 300 residents at the retirement community, and Axton is encouraging the public to also reach out to local communities to try to spread holiday cheer. Axton added, "I want do it as a group because then the conversation gets going, those memories start flowing. It's really beneficial for residents who are living with any kind of cognitive impairment to reminisce and get your brain thinking about those things that you used to do."

The US Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office for Civil Rights on Thursday proposed changes to HIPAA Privacy Rule, reports Healthcare IT News , with the goal of furthering value-based reimbursement and improve care coordination by enabling greater patient and family access to health data. The notice of proposed rule-making, drafted as part of HHS' Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care initiative, aims to remove regulations that might impede communication and data exchange between provider organizations and health plans. The agency says the proposed changes would expand individuals' rights to access their own digital health information, boost information-sharing and case management across the care continuum and enable greater family and caregiver involvement during emergencies or health crises. The changes would also offer more flexibilities for disclosures in situations such as opioid overdoses and the COVID-19 public health emergency.

A study by Sweden's Karolinska Institutet and Italy's Vita-Salute San Raffaele University published in Molecular Psychiatry uncovered genetic explanations for the differences between results yielded by two methods for detecting amyloid pathology in Alzheimer's disease. EurekAlert says the study involved positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analyses in 867 participants, including patients with mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's dementia, and healthy controls. Amyloid accumulation was monitored in a subset of nearly 300 participants documented with both a PET camera and CSF analysis for two years. The outcomes indicate that pathological changes in some individuals are first spotted in the brain with a PET camera, and in other individuals first with CSF analysis. In the latter, the researchers also observed greater incidence of Alzheimer's genetic risk factor and faster buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain. "The results may be important as amyloid biomarkers play a significant role as early diagnostic markers for clinical diagnosis," said first author Arianna Sala. "Today, CSF-analysis and PET are considered equivalent to determine the degree of amyloid accumulation, but the study indicates that the two methods should rather be seen as complementary to each other." Karolinska Institutet's Elena Rodriguez-Vieitez added that the study results "may also be important for the design of clinical trials of new drugs against amyloid accumulation in the brain."

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended approval of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, clearing the way for the FDA to grant emergency authorization of the vaccine as early as Friday, reports the Wall Street Journal . The approval—by a vote of 17-4 with one abstention after a daylong hearing—came as COVID-19 infections continued surging, claiming about 290,000 American lives. In its vote to approve, the panel said the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks for people 16 years of age and older. "The efficacy is overwhelming" for the vaccine, said Eric Rubin, a Harvard microbiologist and panel member. "It's very strong." The prospect of relief from the coronavirus came on a day when 107,000 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, and a record 3,347 deaths were reported by state health departments, topping the milestone reached one day earlier. Within days, the country will likely surpass 300,000 deaths since the pandemic's arrival. The worsening situation has riveted attention on the final steps of the vaccine approval process. The thumbs' up from the FDA's vaccine advisory committee was the culmination of an all-day meeting during which the panel heard presentations on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, including plans to monitor its longer-term safety.

The Portland Press-Herald reports that a bipartisan bill backed by Susan Collins (R-Maine) to protect Alzheimer's disease patients from exploitation has passed both houses of Congress. The Promoting Alzheimer's Awareness to Prevent Elder Abuse Act aims to ensure the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ's) senior abuse training materials factorin the needs of people with Alzheimer's and other dementia disorders. The measure also directs the DOJ to consult with stakeholders in developing the new materials, and incorporate information in its yearly report about where to access them. Collins said roughly one in 10 people 60 or older has experienced some form of senior abuse, while the rate is much higher for people with dementia disorders — with some estimates indicating it exceeds 50 percent.

Healthcare Finance News reports that the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted updates to frequently asked questions (FAQs) and an infographic focusing on coverage and payment for monoclonal antibodies to treat COVID-19. The FAQs include general payment and billing guidance on lab testing, hospital services, and inpatient prospective payment system payments, as well as queries on different setting types. The infographic highlights facts about expected Medicare payment to providers and information on how Medicare beneficiaries can get COVID-19 treatments with no cost-sharing during the public health crisis. The guidance is intended to resolve any questions so that hospitals and physicians can correctly bill Medicare for administering the antibody treatment. CMS on Nov. 10 announced that it would cover monoclonal antibody therapies for free. This covers a broad range of providers and suppliers — including freestanding and hospital-based infusion centers, home health agencies, nursing communities, and entities that contract with them — to administer treatment in compliance with the Food and Drug Administration's Emergency Use Authorization.

A study published in Alzheimer's and Dementia identified 216 novel gene variants that contribute to the risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease by examining carriers of certain genomes that defy their tendency to compound or decrease the likelihood of getting the disorder, reports EurekAlert . "We wanted to test if people who show paradoxical outcomes might have other genetic variants that blunted the risky or protective effects of the APOE genotype they carry," said Baylor College of Medicine Professor Olivier Lichtarge. The researchers used algorithms to compare and contrast the genetic variants present in each subject, in conjunction with a high-throughput fruit fly screen. After discovering the novel gene variants, the team experimentally tested their biological relevance in modifying Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. "The robotic assays provided us with a quantitative assessment of the actual neuronal impairment," said Baylor's Ismael Al-Ramahi. "We used movement-specific behavioral assays as the main readout of nervous system function. Additionally, we obtained precise information of how variants in each gene modified its physiological function, meaning whether the impact on neuronal function was a result of the gene's under-performance (loss-of-function) or over-performance (gain-of-function). This information is critical for the future development of these biomarkers for therapeutic interventions, either by inhibiting or activating these genes in the future."

Experts in SHRM offer six tips for managers to set clearly defined expectations for employees. Betterworks' Luane Tierney says there needs to be emphasis on objectives every quarter, along with "actionable key results that will allow the employee to achieve those objectives." 15Five's Jeff Smith recommends setting expectations with employees from their first day at work, adding that "employees have a clear understanding of what they should be focusing on and how it contributes to the company's overall strategy." Tammy Perkins with PMI Worldwide stresses that team leaders must ensure that staffers understand their accountability for reaching goals, "by following up, establishing shared goals, and setting milestones to allow the team to gauge progress." She also says giving workers meaningful feedback is essential, with storytelling a recommended method. Surehand CEO Chris Brenchley offers leveraging employee motivation as a fifth tip, which "will give you clear insight about what they're planning and how the goals you set will be able to take them where they want to go." The sixth and last suggestion, also from Brenchley, is to provide measurable goals.

New Atlas reports that a study in Brain describes a new technique that can reportedly detect a biomarker of Alzheimer's in cerebrospinal fluid, which could lead to earlier diagnoses and more effective treatments. The researchers examined a key building block of tau tangles called microtubule binding region tau (MTBR), and they treated samples of cerebrospinal fluid with a set of chemicals, which works to purify tau, in combination with mass spectrometry to analyze the solution's constituents. The team applied the method to samples from 100 subjects in their 70s. Thirty lacked cognitive impairment or signs of Alzheimer's, 58 had amyloid plaques with either no cognitive symptoms or mild or moderate Alzheimer's dementia, and 12 had cognitive impairment from unrelated conditions. In persons with Alzheimer's, levels of a specific MTBR variant called MTBR tau 243 were elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid. Its concentration also increased in line with the severity of cognitive impairment and dementia. In subjects monitored over two to nine years, MTBR tau 243 levels continued to significantly grow in those with worsening Alzheimer's. "This could be a way for us to not only diagnose Alzheimer's disease but tell where people are in the disease," suggested Kate Horie with the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.