Penn Medicine's Emmy-Winning Film Puts Alzheimer's Disease on Prime Time

June 16, 2009

"Americans should see this film, their jaws should drop and they should quake in their boots," says Dr. John Q. Trojanowski, Director of Penn's Institute on Aging.

Terminator 4? Monsters vs. Aliens?

No, something more dramatic -- and real: Alzheimer's Disease: Facing the Facts.

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Facing the Facts, which premiered on PBS in January and won a regional Emmy® in May, is a hard-hitting documentary conceived by Trojanowski to deliver a powerful wake-up call: America's ever-growing Alzheimer's population threatens to overwhelm both the health care system's ability to care for these patients and the country's ability to pay.

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive and presently incurable disease caused by brain lesions that ravage victims' memories and result in dementia, disability, and death. At $148 billion annually, it is our third most expensive disease. More than 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease, and as the Baby Boomers age, that number is expected to increase to 16 million by 2050. Yet, after inflation, federal funding for Alzheimer's research has decreased in the last five years.

"There is something wrong with this equation," says Dr. Trojanowski, Director of Penn's Alzheimer's Disease Center. "We are the richest country on earth facing the largest epidemic of a dementing illness ever in the history of civilization. We can take the steps today to go after a hundred targets at the same time rather than a handful. And it’s all a matter of money."

And public education -- enter HBO.

HBO: The Alzheimer's Project

As professors in Penn's School of Medicine, Dr. Trojanowski and his colleague, Dr. Virginia M.-Y. Lee, lead one of the world's most respected research teams in Alzheimer’s Disease. They also firmly believe that research scientists have a mandate to educate the public.

To that end, Trojanowski and Lee teamed up with HBO, Penn's Dr. Gerard D. Schellenberg (a world-class Alzheimer's disease geneticist), as well as nearly twenty other authorities from across the country. The team's two-year collaboration resulted in Momentum in Science, part three of HBO's four-part series, The Alzheimer's Project. Premiered in Philadelphia here at Penn in May, Momentum reveals some of the most cutting-edge research advances that will better detect and diagnose Alzheimer's, delay the onset of memory loss, affect the brain changes associated with the disease, and ultimately prevent Alzheimer's disease altogether.

"The Alzheimer's research community welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with HBO, seeking to raise new awareness and understanding of this devastating disease," says Richard J. Hodes, M.D., director of the National Institute on Aging. "There is a compelling story to tell of scientific discovery, of research advances and challenges, and of the human faces behind the disease."

HBO has produced three additional primetime specials, a companion book, a 50-state outreach, and a website guide to resources and clinical trials. HBO is using all of its platforms, including the HBO main service, multiplex channels, HBO On Demand, HBO Podcasts, hbo.com, HBO Channel on YouTube, and DVD sales to support the project. In addition, all films can be viewed free of charge on hbo.com/alzheimers and are offered for free on multiple platforms by participating television service providers.

Stay tuned!

photo: Dr. Virginia M.-Y. Lee, The John H. Ware 3rd Professor in Alzheimer's Research, with her colleague and spouse, Dr. John Q. Trojanowski, the William Maul Measey-Truman G. Schnabel, Jr. MD Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology.

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