In honor of World Alzheimer’s Day, the de Tornyay Center would like to share a selection of the innovative Alzheimer’s research spearheaded by faculty at the UW School of Nursing:
- Drs. Azita Emami, Gabriella Engstrom, and Hyejin Kim are working on a multidisciplinary music intervention project to develop an innovative, reliable method to assess stress collecting salivary cortisol and DHEA-S among persons with dementia and their family caregivers living at home in Sweden.
- Dr. Sue McCurry is collaborating with colleagues at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and the University of California, San Diego examining relationships between brain aging, dementia, and device-measured physical activity and sleep over the 24-hour day. The study is part of the newly funded Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) longitudinal study which has been collecting data continuously since 1994.
- Drs. Linda Teri and Sue McCurry are collaborating with colleagues at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute on a pragmatic trial testing the impact of a virtual training program for care partners of persons living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (STAR-VTF).
- Dr. Tatiana Sadak is leading local, national and international initiatives in developing a dementia capable healthcare workforce
- Drs. Oleg Zaslavsky and Annie Chen from Biomedical Informatics are working on evaluating web-based intervention to support caregivers of people with Lewy body dementia. Oleg Zaslavsky is also working on developing a mobile intervention to support healthy eating among people with early dementia.
- Dr. Basia Belza and Boeun Kim, PhD and MPH student, are collaborating with the Alzheimer’s Association on evaluating the feasibility of a coaching model to implement Dementia Care Practice Recommendations in assisted living communities in Washington and Montana.