Health Tech Hub Vol. 17— Your Weekly Reads in Medicine and Health Tech
- Alzheimer’s at 38 — This is the story of Jo, his wife Robin, and his struggle with a rare hereditary form of Alzheimer’s Disease. A very close look at the lives of those affected with a genetic disease and the transformation from living normally to “not being the same person anymore.”
“It’s a disease where there isn’t a whole lot of hope. There is zero chance of a happy ending,” she says. “That’s just the reality of the treatment of the disease right now. The only thing in front of us at the end of the disease, and Jo’s life, is a very, very horrible way to die.”
More on hereditary Alzheimer’s:
- The genetic landscape of Alzheimer disease: clinical implications and perspectives (Nature Review)
- Alzheimer’s Prognosis (Image)
- Proposed molecular mechanisms for Alzheimer’s treatment (image)
2. Palliative sedation vs. Physician -Assisted Euthenasia— Who is to choose for those with terminally ill diseases when facing the decision of death with dignity or the endurance of suffering? With the advent of palliative sedation -a way to induce prolonged unconsciousness sometimes ending in death, are physicians obligated to practice this procedure at the discretion of the patient? And how is this different from physician-assisted suicide Physician-assisted euthanasia is currently legal in 7 states while palliative sedation is now legal in all 50 states.
“There are people who believe they are the same. I am not one of them,” said Thomas Strouse, a psychiatrist and specialist in palliative care medicine at the UCLA Medical Center. “The goal of aid-in-dying is to be dead; that is the patient’s goal. The goal in palliative sedation is to manage intractable symptoms, maybe through reduction of consciousness or complete unconsciousness.”
3. Busyness and the acceleration of time — Constant buzzing, constant hurriedness, constant deadlines — for good reason? Will quiet introspection become an extinct feature in society in the years to come? and will people learn to cope with the compounding acceleration of society?
More reads:
Curated by Genesis Dayrit
