The outdoor scenery flew past me in gray, muted tones on my brisk Amtrak ride from New York to Washington, DC on a mild, overcast morning this past February.
As publisher of Scientific American, I’m responsible for overseeing partnerships of many kinds, including academic, industrial and governmental, and most of my weeks involve some mix of planes, trains, and automobiles. This particular late winter ride, however, and its unique destination stood out from any in my recent professional past.
On this auspicious morning, I was en route to a meeting that I had been imagining in one shape or form, for decades. That night, brain researchers, clinicians, patient advocates, economists, caregivers, policymakers and bioscience entrepreneurs would come together near our nation’s capital to focus on stopping Alzheimer’s disease, and the occasion would formally launch a partnership between Scientific American and the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC).
My presence at the event was as much in a personal capacity as a professional one. Dementia devastated multiple members of my family, and turning the tide on it has been on my mind since I was 11 years old. That was when I first meaningfully heard the term “Alzheimer’s disease,” on another late winter ride, to visit my grandfather, who had at the time recently been diagnosed with it. This would become an all too familiar predicament. Throughout my teens, 20s and beyond, every member of my father’s nuclear family eventually succumbed to Alzheimer’s or a related dementia.
As I rode the train into Washington DC’s Union Station for this debut event, I reflected deeply on the long road that got me (and all of us) here. On the frustrating years of waiting and hoping. The many studies and clinical trials for Alzheimer’s and related dementias that were done, re-done, then re-done again. The families like mine, ravaged by physical, emotional, and financial burdens. The underappreciated efforts of caregivers worldwide, who spent their days and nights with loved ones ameliorating their discomforts and frightened confusions as best they could. I reflected on the fact that for more than a century, there has been little in the way of hope for Alzheimer’s.
On the train, I listened to a random Spotify playlist. Through sheer celestial serendipity, one song after another—Here Comes the Sun, Fight Song, Message in a Bottle, Lean on Me—was powered by the theme of hope. And as I made my way from the platform to the station’s stately interior ballroom, The Columbus Club (the backdrop for that evening’s festivities), I marveled also that the Alzheimer’s and brain-health leaders were also gathering to celebrate the long-awaited hope that was emerging in the field.
There was hope because science was finally revealing how we might control and modify Alzheimer’s through drugs and other interventions. Hope because a fresh set of biomarkers and diagnostic tools have recently allowed us to better measure this disease and intervene early. And hope because, through efforts like DAC’s, global populations and international healthcare systems can take stock of their unique needs (and care models) and better prepare for the challenges and costs of an aging population.
When “showtime” came around, I opened the event by sharing my profound connection to this topic with the assembled 100-plus guests, formally announced our new partnership with DAC, and brought DAC Founding Chairman George Vradenburg to the stage. After giving me a heartfelt embrace, he underscored the urgency of this moment. “I can see this aiming, like a bullet, at my kids and my grandkids if we don’t make more progress in the next 45 years than we have in the last 45 years.”
Then his tone changed. “Many of you in this room have made remarkable contributions in the last few years to the progress we are making in science and in diagnostics.” He clearly laid out DAC’s mission: “We are committed to a cure…and to including researchers, clinicians and families in this fight globally, ensuring that no corner of the world is left untouched by our efforts.”
Vradenburg’s powerful introduction set the stage for remarks by two U.S. Senators, in an emotional display of bipartisan solidarity. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Susan Collins both had personal stories to tell of this disease, and of the profound commitments they have made to ensure substantial federal funding for Alzheimer’s research. “Rather than succumb to despair, what we’re doing is joining together across borders, cultures and languages to chart a future for the world of prevention, effective treatment and, one day, a cure,” Collins declared.
The two discussion panels that followed explored the progress on new innovations in diagnosing and treating the disease—as well as the challenges faced in getting those same innovations into healthcare systems worldwide, and how we might overcome them.
It was memorable discussion. Comparing the early days of Alzheimer’s research to staring up “a 100-foot cliff with only a few 10 foot-ladders,” Elias Zerhouni, a former NIH director, said that today there is a truly “global approach” and that we can “put all of these ladders together and go over the cliff.” Terry Fulmer, president of the John A. Hartford Foundation, pointed out that “longevity is the greatest gift of the 20th century,” and that our collective resolve, globally, should be assessing the requisite care needs for an aging population that’s susceptible to Alzheimer’s.
Among the many amazing comments from the evening’s proceedings, perhaps the most memorable was from Jeffrey Burns, a neurologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center who’s working at the forefront of family care in Alzheimer’s: “What I am most excited about is how transformative a time it is right now. I’ve been at this for 20 years, and the conversation has been exactly the same for 19 years; and it is totally changing in the last year.” An energizing perspective, to be sure.
As the crowd networked after the formal discussion period, they asked more questions of the panelists, shared personal and professional stories with each other, and their dedication to addressing the global urgency of this disease could not be missed. I have mixed and mingled at so many professional events in my career with individuals committed to health’s future, and I have never felt more with my people than at this gathering, or felt so much genuine optimism and transformative energy in a room.
With an early meeting in New York the next day, I needed to head back on a late train, and in my quiet seat on the Amtrak Acela, I gazed out to a darkened, barely visible landscape. My mind was buzzing from the many conversations that had just transpired. And from the sense of commitment I felt from all of the amazing people I had just met. It had been a long day. And I was in for a long ride ahead. But I could not think of a more satisfying, hopeful journey.
To view the entire event, click here. Read a thorough piece from Health Policy Watch, covering the event and its participants, here.
This article is part of The New Age of Alzheimer’s, a special report on the advances fueling hope for ending this devastating disease.