The experience of dementia OUTSIDE the nursing home: pain, weight loss, and transitions in care
August 31, 2015
by: Alex Smith, @AlexSmithMD About 4.5 million people have dementia in the US. Thanks to the fantastic work of palliative…
#ThickenedLiquidChallenge on Making Sense of Alzheimers
May 8, 2015
by: Alex Smith, @AlexSmithMD Check it out folks, the #ThickenedLiquidChallenge is now a featured video on MakingSenseofAlzheimers.org, a new site out of…
Potpourri from clinical work VIII: TVs, tissues, timing, losing stuff, & no to hospice
April 10, 2015
by: Alex Smith, @alexsmithMD This is the 8th installment in my occasional post-being-on-service-digestion-of-what-just-happened-via-blogging potpourri from clinical work series. TVs. Our…
#Thickenedliquidchallenge from a patient’s point of view: provocative comments and a poll
February 25, 2015
by: Stan Terman Michael Ellenbogen has dementia. He took the #thickenedliquidchallenge. He never wants to have thickenedliquids again, even if…
Working with rather than against speech & swallow therapists #ThickenedLiquidChallenge
January 23, 2015
By Alex Smith @AlexSmithMD and Sarah Stranberg, Speech Pathologist, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Consider the following vignettes, common in…
Advance care planning cold calls, crowdfunding palliative care, and pocket card decision aids
November 3, 2014
Advance Care Planning · Dementia · Ethics · Geriatrics · Hepatitis · Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) · Mental Health
by: Alex Smith @AlexSmithMD Every once and a while, a new innovation comes along that makes you go, “Wow!” or,…
Financial Capacity, Alzheimer’s, and the sale of the LA Clippers
July 18, 2014
More than 5 million Americans currently have Alzheimer disease. One of them happens to be Donald Sterling. There are a…
Behavioral Symptoms of Dementia Should Be Treated WIth Behavioral Approaches
June 9, 2014
Persons with dementia often suffer from behavioral symptoms such as agitation and aggression. For the caregiver, these symptoms can be…
An antidote for our emotional distance
June 6, 2014
By: Laurel Coleman, MD I have been pondering Danielle Ofri’s NY Times column, “The Silence of Doctors Around Alzheimer’s”…
Neuropalliative Care: Call to Action and Top 10 Pointers
June 5, 2014
When I chose to pursue a residency in Neurology, the first response from my medical school acquaintances was “But, you…