The prevention global dialogue tracked progress made on reducing the risk of dementia, and was led by Professor Kaarin Anstey, professor of psychology and director of the University of New South Wales Ageing Futures Institute, and Professor Philippe Amouyel, general director of Fondation Plan Alzheimer (France), professor of epidemiology and public health at the University Hospital of Lille, and a member of the World Dementia Council.
Co-chairs
Professor Kaarin Anstey
Kaarin Anstey is a professor of psychology and conducts public health research into dementia risk reduction ranging from analysis of cohort studies, development of risk assessment tools, and conducting risk reduction trials. Kaarin is the director of the University of New South Wales Ageing Futures Institute and is a conjoint senior principal research scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia. She chairs the International Research Network on Dementia Prevention and is a member of the governance committee of the Global Council on Brain Health, an initiative supported by AARP.
Professor Philippe Amouyel
Philippe Amouyel is general director of Fondation Alzheimer (France), professor of epidemiology and public health at the University Hospital of Lille, and a member of the World Dementia Council. Since 1998, he has headed a research unit of 110 people dedicated to public health and the molecular epidemiology of age-related diseases. He has published more than 850 scientific articles and participated in the discovery of 90% of the confirmed genetic loci predisposing to sporadic Alzheimer’s disease. At the European level, Philippe also chairs the European Joint Programming Initiative on Research on Neurodegenerative Diseases (JPND) and Alzheimer’s in particular. The main objective of JPND is to combine the strength of European and global research to tackle these diseases more efficiently.
Presenters
Professor Carol Brayne
Carol Brayne CBE is a Professor of Public Health Medicine and Co-Chair of the Cambridge Public Health Interdisciplinary Centre at the University of Cambridge. She is a medically qualified epidemiologist and public health academic. Her main research has been longitudinal studies of older people following changes over time with a public health perspective and focus on the brain. She is lead principal investigator in the MRC CFA Studies and other population based studies and has played a lead role in teaching and training in epidemiology and public health at Cambridge University. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and an NIHR Senior Investigator Emeritus.
Dr Michele Cecchini
Michele Cecchini is responsible for the programme on Public Health at the OECD – the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Michele’s research interests include priority setting and programme evaluation of policies influencing population health. He is the editor, author and co-author of a large number of publications on the economic aspects of public health, including the recent OECD flagship publications on antimicrobial resistance, overweight and alcohol. Michele represents OECD in the board of the Global AMR R&D Hub and holds a position of adjunct professor in applied health economics at the School of Public Health of the University of Siena (Italy). Previously, he held a visiting position at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore and served as a temporary advisor to a number of government and international agencies, including WHO, IARC, EC and the World Bank. After obtaining a degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Genoa, Michele completed his specialist training in Public Health at the University of Siena. He also obtained a master’s degree in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a PhD from Imperial College London.
Dr Yoshiki Niimi
Dr Yoshiki Niimi is a special appointed lecturer at the Unit for early and exploratory clinical development, University of Tokyo. Dr Niimi participates in the Japanese TRC-PAD (J-TRC) and the DIAN-Japan as a site PI at Tokyo university. He had worked at the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare Japan as a senior specialist for dementia from 2012 till 2015. During that period, the G8 Dementia Summit and serial legacy events were held. He played a pivotal role in promoting the Global Dementia Legacy Event Japan and formulating the Japanese national dementia plan or ‘New orange plan’. By utilizing this experience, he serves as the Vice-chair of the Social problem committee of the Japan Society for dementia research.
Other dialogues in the series
To inform the dementia landscape report, the Council has hosted global dialogues for international dementia leaders focusing on key themes of research, care and prevention that were identified at the London dementia summit in 2013, as well as on additional key themes and new policy priorities that we have agreed to highlight in the report, including data sharing and dementia registries, technology and dementia, and the impact of dementia on low- and middle-income countries. See more below.