Editor's Note
VOLUME 36, NO. 4 • DECEMBER 2019
Tzung-Jeng Hwang, IPA Bulletin Editor-in-Chief
After the annual Congress in September, the IPA had a variety of new changes. We have a new President (Dr. William Reichman from Canada), new President-Elect (Dr. Manabu Ikeda from Japan), Secretary (Dr. Tzung-Jeng Hwang from Taiwan) and several new board members (John Brennan from Ireland, Dr. Maria Lapid from the USA, Dr. Dawne Garrett from UK, Dr. Venu Jhanwar from India, and Dr. Hilde Verbeek from The Netherlands).
In the President’s Message of this issue, Dr. Reichman expresses his admiration and gratitude to our Immediate Past President (Dr. Mary Sano) and many members who have contributed significantly to the development of the IPA, and urges us to look into the future and get ready to adapt to the changing world full of challenges and opportunities. Four task forces have been set up to further create values for members, offer impactful programs and services, effectively advocate, and to achieve financial strength of the IPA.
The next IPA Congress will be held on 2-5 October 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal, and 2021 Congress will be on 16-18 September in Kyoto, Japan. We encourage our members to book in your schedule for these exciting meetings.
I am happy to announce that we have two new assistant editors, Dr. Jorge Cuevas from Spain and Dr. Rita Khoury from Lebanon. Both are young and active. Our team of the IPA Bulletin welcomes more and more enthusiastic members to join the editorial team to share and contribute their knowledge and experiences with our colleagues around the world.
In this issue, there are seven articles, five in “Research and Practice,” one in “Around the World,” and one in “Technology Corner.”
In “Research and Practice”:
Dr. Rapoport (Canada) updates us on the link between lifestyle and dementia at the community level. The main finding is that a healthy lifestyle is associated with reduced dementia risk for people with and without genetic risk factors, although the magnitude of the effect is small. Dr. Hoek (The Netherlands) summarizes her work on the support of autonomy of nursing home residents with dementia and shows that supporting resident autonomy requires nursing homes to focus on flexibility, offer meaningful activities and stimulate continuation of social traditions. Dr. Khoury (Lebanon) reports on the glymphatic system in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and indicates that glymphatic system dysfunction may contribute to the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease through the loss of polarization of astrocytic AQP-4. Dr. Loi (Taiwan) addresses an emerging biomarker of AD (neurofilament light chain), which is one of the subunits of neurofilament triplet protein and can be released into CSF and eventually into venous blood following neuronal damage. Finally, Dr. Valzolgher (Italy) illustrates a case of neuroleptic malignant syndrome in a patient affected by dementia taking antipsychotic therapy for agitation.
In “Around the World”:
Dr. Wongpakaran (Thailand) and three young doctors share their experiences of joining the IPA Congress in Santiago de Compostela. It is worthy of notice that one of them, Dr. Awirut Oon-arom, received a IPA Junior Research Award this year, and all of the three young doctors attended the IPA congress for the first time. The IPA very much welcomes more and more young gens to join our large community.
In “Technology Corner”, out of the concern of driving safety for senile people, Dr. Yang (Taiwan) reports on the new development of the Japanese automobile industry of a “wrong pedal prevention” system which can significantly reduce the harm of wrong pedal stepping. This system has been tested, approved, and endorsed by the Japanese traffic administrative authorities, and will soon become widely available within one to two years. It would be interesting to see future advancement in this field around the world.
I cordially invite IPA members to submit articles to share thoughts and experiences with us! Please reach us at IPABulletin@ipa-online.org.
