Facing Uncertainty: Who is Destined for Alzheimer's Disease?

Noeud de réseau: 
Date: 
Me., Mar. 23, 2011, 7:00pm - Ve., Mar. 25, 2011, 5:00pm

Video (from U. Alberta segment) now available on our partner site       HERE

Saskatoon, Edmonton and Calgary: Science and its Publics National Lecture Series Presents Part 5:
Facing Uncertainty: Who is Destined for Alzheimer's Disease?
TH MARCH 24TH 3:30PM MDT STREAMED LIVE FROM EDMONTON AT WWW.CCEPA.CA

MARCH 23 | SASKATOON

7-9 pm, Sasktel Lecture Theatre, Royal University Hospital, 103 Hospital Drive, Saskatoon, SK

MARCH 24 | EDMONTON

3:30-5:30 pm, Room E1 003 Engineering Teaching and Learning Centre, North Campus, University of Alberta. This event is streamed live at www.ccepa.ca.

MARCH 25 | CALGARY

5-7 pm, Clara Christie Theatre, Health Sciences Centre, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW

Dr. Margaret Lock, Marjorie Bronfman Professor, Department of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University presents a lecture on the medical theories of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the role of various publics in shaping understanding of this disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is increasingly described today as an epidemic, both in professional literature and the media, with estimates of 115 million cases worldwide by 2050. Less visible are the ongoing arguments in the medical world about the entanglement of AD with “normal” aging, and the repeated efforts to delineate what exactly constitutes AD. Following a presentation of the competing medical theories about AD causation and its early diagnosis, I will consider public commentary on AD made by the media, AD societies, and members of the public who have undergone genetic testing to assess risk for late onset AD. It is clear that abiding uncertainty about the relationship among aging, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease are present in both scientific and public discourse, but equally a sense of urgency exists that medicine must find, post haste, a “cure” for this “living death” with its debilitating drain on the economy and on family life.

This event marks the fifth and final part of a multi-part national series on Science and its Publics created by the Situating Science Strategic Knowledge Cluster, (www.situsci.ca) and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Public Affairs, (www.ccepa.ca).

This event is supported by Alzheimer’s Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Research Chair Program and the Faculty of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan.

Edmonton Respondent:

Alex Choby, Post- Doctorate Fellow, Interdisciplinary Studies, Science Technology and Society, University of Alberta

This event is supported by Genome Alberta, the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta.

Calgary Respondents:

Dr. David Hogan, Brenda Strafford Foundation Chair in Geriatric Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Calgary

Dr. Marc Ereshefsky, Full Professor of Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, University of Calgary

This event is supported by Genome Alberta, the Calgary History of Medicine Society (CHOMS); the Science, Technology and Society Program (STAS); the History and Philosophy of Science Program (HPS); and the History of Neuroscience Interest Group (HONIG)

Free admission

Reception to follow

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