Sort by: Title  Date

• Alliance Views, Newsletters
  Know Your Pulse: It Could Save Your Life
  
  Fall 2012
  Related topics: Cardiovascular Disease  Prevention  Quality of Care  
  
  
  Think back and try to remember if your doctor or another health care professional checked your pulse during your last visit? Not with a stethoscope but with their fingers on your wrist? If you’re like many people you’re sure that they listened to your heart and checked your blood pressure, but you’re also pretty sure no one has taken your pulse in a while.
  
  While listening to your heart with a stethoscope helps your doctor evaluate the functioning of your heart and its valves, a simple pulse check can better evaluate your heart’s rate and rhythm.
  
  
• Vision Checklist
  
  December 2012
  
  A new checklist helps you start an important conversation with your eye care professional about your eye health. To learn more click here.
• Press Release
  AFib Patient Survey Finds Active Participation in Treatment Decisions
  
  November 5, 2012
  Related topics: Cardiovascular Disease  
  
  
  One-Third of Surveyed Patients Report that Treatment Decision was Made Jointly with their Health Care Providers
  
  
• Podcast
  CER Interview with Cynthia Bens
  
  August 14, 2012
  Related topics: Access to Breakthroughs    Aging Research  Drug Development  Drug Safety  Federal Funding  Health  Medical Innovation  Other Diseases of Aging  Policy  Quality of Care  Research  Vision Loss  
  
  
  
  

  Cynthia Bens is the Director of Public Policy at the not-for-profit Alliance for Aging Research in Washington, D.C. In this capacity, Ms. Bens is responsible for guiding the organization's federal policy work, representing the Alliance in multiple national coalitions, and directing the Accelerate Cure/Treatments for Alzheimer's Disease (ACT-AD) Coalition. For the past eleven years Ms. Bens has worked to inform federal policymakers and educate the public on a variety of issues. For more than half of that time her efforts have centered on the formulation of policies to expedite the development of interventions to treat and prevent many debilitating age-related disease; to remove access barriers to needed treatments and therapies; and to improve the coordination and quality of care seniors receive.

  
  

  
  

  Prior to joining the Alliance in 2006, Ms. Bens was a senior manager of government affairs with the Loeffler Group. As part of its federal government affairs practice, she represented diverse client interests before the U.S. Congress and the administration. Her core areas of focus included appropriations, budget, health care, education, telecommunications, and international trade. Through various other positions on Capitol Hill and in the private sector, she has acquired extensive experience researching and analyzing federal legislation and regulations. Ms. Bens holds a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from New York University with concentrations in Political Science and Women’s Studies. 

  
  

   

  
  

   "However, if {CER} results are poorly communicated, the availability of more information could lead to confusion for patients on what choices are the right ones for them and also confusion for providers on how they should treat their patients."

  
  
• Podcast
  CER Interview with Gail Hunt
  
  August 14, 2012
  Related topics: Access to Breakthroughs    Caregiving  Drug Development  Drug Safety  Federal Funding  Medical Innovation  Policy  Quality of Care  Research  Vision Loss  
  
  
   

  Gail Hunt is President and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving, a non-profit coalition dedicated to conducting research and developing national programs for family caregivers and the professionals who serve them.  
  
  Prior to heading NAC, Ms. Hunt was President of her own aging services consulting firm for 14 years.  She conducted corporate eldercare research for the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration, developed training for caregivers with AARP and the American Occupational Therapy Association, and designed a corporate eldercare program for EAPs with the Employee Assistance Professional Association. 
  
  She was appointed by the White House to serve on the Policy Committee for the 2005 White House Conference on Aging. Ms. Hunt was on the Advisory Panel on Medicare Education, is chair of the National Center on Senior Transportation, is a Commissioner of the Center for Aging Service Technology, and is Secretary of the Long-Term Quality Alliance.  Additionally, Ms. Hunt is on the Governing Board of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).

   

  "I think {CER} is a wonderful opportunity for patients and care givers to get involved in the research. Those families and care givers should be involved in helping to work on the research, involved in helping to think through what the results mean, how they can best be disseminated, and help in the dissemination. Which is an opportunity they haven’t had before."