Aging Gracefully on Arkansas Medical News Inc.

Aging Gracefully

By: LYNNE JETER

UAMS Chancellor Daniel Rahn, MD, watches as the final beam is being placed in the early April topping-out ceremony.

Institute on Aging Ramps Up Expansion Plan, Program Offerings

LITTLE ROCK—On a mid-spring day, UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn, MD, led a robust round of applause as the final beam was placed atop the UAMS Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging on the corner of Jack Stephens Drive and Seventh Street.

The most enthusiastic cheerleader on the sidelines of the topping-out ceremony for the $28 million, four-story expansion project was executive director, Jeanne Wei, MD, PhD, a Johns Hopkins-trained geriatrician and Harvard professor who was recruited to the Institute on Aging nearly a decade ago.

“This is such an exciting time for us,” said Wei. “We have the only freestanding building in the United States that’s completely dedicated to seniors, perhaps the only one like it in the world. We also have the largest stand-alone geriatrics outpatient clinic in the nation. Even so, we needed to expand because every day since Jan. 1, 2011 about 10,000 people have turned 65. That trend will continue for the next two decades as we grow the nation’s senior population to 76 million. Then there will be more seniors than newborns! We at the Reynolds Institute on Aging needed to prepare now for the future of healthcare so that Arkansas seniors can get the very best care.”

When the project is completed in early 2012, the additional space will greatly enhance the institute’s education and research programs, which fits well with Wei’s primary focus areas—research, frailty and cognitive function.

“Our seniors have had some success with cancer because, thanks to all the research progress that’s been accomplished worldwide in terms of treatment for cancer, it’s not so much the feared and dreaded diagnosis it once was,” said Wei. “In fact, many of the cancers are evolving into chronic disease conditions. For seniors, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the most dreaded and feared diagnosis isn’t cancer anymore, but a disease that starts with “D” … the “D” word is dementia. We don’t have a way to cure dementia or make as much progress with it as we have for cancer.”

Even though Wei is adamant about preventing or delaying the development of Alzheimer’s disease, she’s waiting to hear more about the imminent potential of Alzheimer’s vaccines being developed in Europe. A few months ago, for example, early (phase 1) clinical trial results concerning the Alzheimer’s vaccine candidate AD02 showed promising results for strong and continual stabilization of cognitive function for some Alzheimer patients, but it was a very small sample size. The memory-robbing and debilitating disease is estimated to affect 22 million worldwide by 2025.

“It would be nice to have a vaccine to prevent Alzheimer’s, but we aren’t that close yet,” said Wei. “Other studies have shown promising results in phases 1 and 2, but fell apart during phase 3. It’s wonderful that further treatment development is underway and we’re getting closer, but we need to be realistic about the timeline.”

Wei is enthusiastic about progress being made on another vital issue. Thanks to the unique, mandated UAMS rotation policy on geriatrics, more physicians are choosing to specialize in the field.

“Today, the field of geriatrics is about where pediatrics was around 80 years ago,” she explained. “It wasn’t that well respected or well established, and people used to think it was ‘little medicine for little people’… Of course, since then people have recognized pediatrics as a separate specialty that brings with it a totally separate body of knowledge.

"Nobody would want their child to go to a generalist if anything needs more attention than a wellness checkup. They would rather take their child to a pediatrician. People are starting to understand the significance and value of geriatricians, yet they don’t appreciate the big differences because it’s a relatively new specialty. Geriatrics, the new kid on the block, is going to have to grow very quickly to accommodate the pace of aging Americans and consequent increased demand. It’s wonderful that our leaders in Arkansas had the foresight and the vision to position Arkansas better than any other state, by requiring every single student at UAMS to serve a four-week rotation in geriatrics.

"No one graduates from our medical school without being exposed to the nuances of caring for older patients. Most medical schools don’t have this requirement and their graduates aren’t necessarily well trained in that area. We’re so lucky because first, our graduates will have that exposure, and second, most of them stay in Arkansas.”