of Public Health Medicine
in Department of Public
Health and Primary Care in
the University of Cambridge.
She is a medically qualified
She graduated in medicine from the Royal
Free Hospital School of Medicine, University
of London and went on to train in general
medicine. After gaining membership she
moved on to training in epidemiology with a
Training Fellowship with the Medical Research
Council. The research area for this Fellowship
was ageing and dementia. Since the mid-
eighties her main research area has been
longitudinal studies of older people following
changes in cognition, dementia natural history
and associated features with a public health
perspective. She is lead principal investigator
in the group of MRC CFA Studies which
have informed and will continue to inform
national policy and scientific understanding
of dementia in whole populations. She has
been responsible for training programs
in epidemiology and public health for
undergraduates and postgraduates since the
early nineties. She is Director of the Institute of
Public Health at the University of Cambridge.
has been a topic of societal and research
interest since the second half of the last
century. From a societal angle there are
some key drivers for this interest: success in
life expectancy extension and larger numbers
at risk of, and with, dementia; associated
advances supporting the medicalisation of the
population (screening and treatment of risk,
effective treatment of actual disorders); the
important role of pharmaceutical companies
in the global financial sector and, although
scientific research is conducted largely
independently of these factors impact of
these on, funding, uptake and interpretation
of findings. This talk will cover the ways in
which population based studies can help
provide a relatively unbiased perspective
on ageing of the brain, cognitive changes,
the dementia syndrome and its associated
neurobiology. Drawing on the longstanding
studies focused on dementia in the UK, I will
discuss how their findings are relevant both
to the molecular understanding of dementia
and policy development and increased
research into the pathology of the dementing
disorders.
CCC-SLP, ASHA Fellow, is a
Professor in the Department
of Speech & Hearing Science,
Ohio State University. She
has received numerous grants
and the Alzheimer's Association to investigate
interventions for spousal and nursing home
caregivers designed to improve the quality
and quantity of communicative interactions
with residents with dementia, to evaluate
memory aids and interventions for persons
with dementia and traumatic brain injury, and
to develop training programs for institutional
caregivers. A clinical researcher, Michelle has
published numerous research articles, training
manuals and CDs, and books. She was the