Latest / Dementia Researcher Vodcast / 2023 End of Year Reflections from Dementia Researchers

Transcript

2023 End of Year Reflections from Dementia Researchers · Dementia Researcher Vodcast

• 0:00
  - [Narrator] The Dementia Researcher Podcast,
• 0:02
  talking careers, research,
• 0:04
  conference highlights, and so much more.
• 0:07
  - Hello and welcome to the Dementia Researcher Podcast.
• 0:10
  Coming up in this show,
• 0:11
  I'll be talking with some
• 0:12
  of our incredible Dementia research bloggers
• 0:14
  in a festive special.
• 0:16
  If you can't tell,
• 0:17
  we festive hat.
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  We're gonna be reflecting a little on 2023
• 0:22
  and talk about plans for next year.
• 0:25
  And we're gonna test their knowledge in a fun quiz.
• 0:28
  So let's get into it.
• 0:31
  (Christmas song)
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  Hello, I'm Adam Smith.
• 0:43
  I'm the programme director for Dementia Researcher
• 0:46
  and today I have the pleasure of hosting this show,
• 0:49
  but that's enough from me.
• 0:50
  Let's meet our brilliant guest today.
• 0:52
  I'm joined by Ajantha Abey,
• 0:55
  Dr. Connor Richardson,
• 0:56
  Dr. Clarissa Giebel, Hannah Hussain,
• 0:59
  Dr. Anna Volkmer,
• 1:00
  and Dr. Jodi Watt.
• 1:01
  Hi, everybody.
• 1:03
  - Hi.
• 1:05
  - Sadly,
• 1:06
  not all of our regular bloggers could join us today,
• 1:08
  but I know they have some great festive blogs planned.
• 1:10
  So do remember to subscribe to our blogs podcast
• 1:13
  and you'll hear those.
• 1:15
  So are we feeling all Christmasy?
• 1:18
  - Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:19
  - For the benefit,
• 1:21
  if you are listening to this
• 1:22
  rather than watching, absolutely.
• 1:24
  Everybody is wearing a Christmas hat
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  and Christmas jumper.
• 1:27
  The entire thing is entirely decorated all around them.
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  It's incredibly festive.
• 1:33
  If you're watching on video,
• 1:35
  you'll know I don't always tell the truth.
• 1:38
  I do, I always tell the truth.
• 1:41
  If we do normal introductions,
• 1:43
  I think we're gonna be here all day.
• 1:45
  So for the first in our series of challenges,
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  I'm gonna ask everybody,
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  I'm gonna go around
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  and they're gonna have to describe themselves
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  in 30 seconds or less
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  and I'm gonna set a timer on my phone
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  to alert us when your 30 seconds is up.
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  And I'm gonna go because Anna is regular guest host
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  and does this all the time.
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  I'm gonna go to Anna first.
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  Anna, your 30 second starts now.
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  - Hi, everybody,
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  my name is Anna Volkmer.
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  I'm a speech and language therapist by background,
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  but I'm a senior research fellow
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  and IHR-funded advanced researcher at UCL,
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  specialising in dementia and interventions for people
• 2:27
  with progressive language difficulties
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  and their family members.
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  I think I beat dark.
• 2:31
  - You did.
• 2:33
  That's rubbish.
• 2:34
  You didn't get to hear the cool noise at the end.
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  I didn't really think this through, did I?
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  Clearly.
• 2:40
  - No.
• 2:42
  - Okay.
• 2:43
  Connor, you are next,
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  Go.
• 2:45
  - Hi, I'm Connor Richardson.
• 2:47
  I'm based at Newcastle University.
• 2:49
  I'm a biochemist and biostatistician by background.
• 2:54
  I'm doing NIHR fellowship at Newcastle at the minute
• 2:58
  on dementia epidemiology,
• 3:00
  looking at the effect
• 3:01
  of anti-inflammatories on dementia risk.
• 3:06
  - You beat the clock, too.
• 3:08
  And have you just come back from your...
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  Because you are a Dem Comm fellow.
• 3:12
  - I am, yeah.
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  - This is a chance to get a plugin
• 3:16
  because we're just about to embark on recording a new series
• 3:19
  with Dem Comm fellows.
• 3:20
  I know Dem Comm Fellows are funded by the NIHR
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  and Alzheimer's Society
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  and there are over 50 of them working
• 3:27
  in the applied research collaboratives
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  up and down the country,
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  doing amazingly incredible diverse projects on everything,
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  from eyesight, to falling downstairs or prevention,
• 3:37
  falling downstairs,
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  all kinds of stuff.
• 3:39
  And we live to start a new podcast series with them
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  where they're all gonna take a turn at hosting
• 3:42
  and being guests on the show
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  to talk about their work with a a co-host who is...
• 3:48
  For the first series,
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  it's gonna be Chris Roberts,
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  who's somebody who's been on the show before,
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  somebody lives with Mitch.
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  So watch this space for that.
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  And thank you for joining, Connor.
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  I'm gonna go to Clarissa next.
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  - Yes.
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  Hi, everyone.
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  Can I start?
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  The timer starts. - go.
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  - Yes.
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  - Go.
• 4:04
  - So I'm Clarissa Giebel,
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  senior research fellow at the University of Liverpool.
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  My background is neuropsychology
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  and my research is looking at dementia care inequalities
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  and how we can find solutions
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  so that everyone with dementia
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  and their families can access care more equitably.
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  And I'm also passionate advocate for public involvement.
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  So I run the Liverpool Dimension Ageing Research Forum.
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  - Thank you very much, Clarissa.
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  And you also beat the clock.
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  This is gonna be no fun
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  if somebody can't take more than 30 seconds.
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  Hannah, you go next.
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  - Hi, everyone,
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  I'm Hannah Hussein
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  and I've got a background in pharmacy
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  and in health economics.
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  I'm currently a third year PhD student
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  at the University of Sheffield
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  and my research is looking into how
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  to best measure health-related quality of life
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  for youth in dementia economic evaluations.
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  - Thank you very much.
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  You did that in 20 seconds.
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  Clearly, this wasn't challenging enough.
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  I needed to give you 15 seconds.
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  I'm gonna go to Jodi next.
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  Jodi, go.
• 5:08
  - Hi.
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  So I'm Jodi.
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  I'm a postdoc research assistant
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  with Professor Terry Quin at Glasgow.
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  And I'm currently looking at drug repurposing
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  for Alzheimer's and dementia.
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  I also focus on a lot of my lived experience
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  as someone who's and neurodiverse
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  and see how that relates to the world
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  of Alzheimer's research.
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  - Thank you very much.
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  Well done.
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  You beat the timer.
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  Top pressure on you now.
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  Ajantha, you are the last to go.
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  Can I drive mine? - Go on.
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  You're the last to go.
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  And if you don't achieve this,
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  I mean, I don't really know
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  whether I want you to do this or not.
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  We want you to not actually do this
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  so that I waste my time paid 79 pence for a noise effect.
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  Go.
• 5:53
  - All right.
• 5:54
  Hi, my name is Ajantha Abey.
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  I am a PhD student at the University of Oxford.
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  I'm in my final year in the Wade Martin's lab.
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  I'm pathology by background
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  and I currently work on looking at collective vulnerability
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  in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease using IPSC models.
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  - Is there anything else you'd like to add to that?
• 6:18
  - And I'm having to finish next year.
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  - Oh, do you know,
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  I didn't even play the stupid noise?
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  Do you want to know what the noise was for?
• 6:29
  Just so that you've actually heard it
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  after all that selling it up it
• 6:35
  (Christmas song plays)
• 6:37
  - Oh, worth it.
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  - It cost me 79 pence did that
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  (all laughing)
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  for the purposes of the podcast.
• 6:48
  Thank you very much.
• 6:49
  You wanted did incredibly well.
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  And I'm sure most of our audience,
• 6:54
  most of our listeners will have already met most
• 6:58
  of our bloggers before
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  'cause, of course, you all write blogs
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  and narrate them,
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  which is weird, isn't it?
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  Because everybody feels like they know you
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  even though you might never met
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  because they've heard you talk often
• 7:09
  about so much work that's going on
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  and what happens in your private lives.
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  But also, as well,
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  some of you have been on the podcast before.
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  So thank you very much everybody for joining us.
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  Well, with that out the way,
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  I'm gonna start
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  by asking you all what your personal highlight was.
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  (Christmas song)
• 7:39
  so personal highlights of 2023.
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  I'm gonna go to Clarissa first.
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  - Lovely.
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  - Has it been a good year, Clarissa?
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  - I think so.
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  There's always grand rejections and paper rejections,
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  but we just have to suck it up, unfortunately.
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  We all get them,
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  but we also get some positives.
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  But I think on the whole,
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  I'm incredibly exhausted from this year.
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  Just one my Christmas break, to be honest.
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  But for me,
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  there's two highlights that really stand out.
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  One is a lot of travelling this year for research work,
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  not just conferences,
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  which is one of the many reasons I went into this job
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  because I like to travel and meet new people
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  and new communities and new settings and learn from them.
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  And I went to Bangalore in India
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  and I also went to Medellín
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  and other places in Columbia.
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  So really understanding how people
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  from very different cultures
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  and socioeconomic backgrounds understand dementia.
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  For me, that's really important.
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  And the inequalities and barriers
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  to getting even a diagnosis
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  or getting any type of care if they do,
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  that's one of the main highlights.
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  But the second highlight,
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  as I was saying earlier,
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  I really love public involvement and engagement.
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  And this year,
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  we co-produced a game on all of our research,
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  so dementia inequalities game.
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  It was fantastic to launch it
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  during World Alzheimer's Month
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  with lots of caregivers and people with dementia
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  and it's available on the Lewy Body Society websites.
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  So now what we're trying to do
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  as opposed to doing more research,
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  really we are trying to use it
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  as a possible interventional tool,
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  as an educational tool for health
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  and social care professionals
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  and students to learn about dimension inequalities
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  and maybe actually change their care practises
• 9:29
  as a result of playing a board game.
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  So for me,
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  it's really novel and and different.
• 9:34
  So really interesting.
• 9:36
  - That's wonderful.
• 9:37
  Thank you, Clarissa.
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  You've written a blog
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  on your work creating that game as well, haven't you?
• 9:43
  And it's available to buy on the Lewy Body Society website.
• 9:48
  - Yeah.
• 9:48
  So all goes back to charity.
• 9:50
  - Fantastic.
• 9:51
  What a great year.
• 9:52
  Thank you, Clarissa.
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  What about you, Hannah?
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  - I've got a few kind of personal
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  and then kind of academic highlights.
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  So I also did a lot of travel this year,
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  but for personal reasons.
• 10:03
  So I got to celebrate.
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  - Still counts.
• 10:06
  - Yeah, it still counts like some nice trips
• 10:09
  and just getting away
• 10:10
  and seeing the world a little bit more,
• 10:12
  which I think is one of the things about doing a PhD,
• 10:15
  like it's a lot of work,
• 10:16
  but it's also you don't need to request on your leave.
• 10:19
  So as long as you can work hard in the times
• 10:21
  when you need to work hard,
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  you can fit the things that you wanna do around that.
• 10:25
  So I think that's one
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  of the things we don't maybe talk about enough.
• 10:28
  And it's quite been quite nice to be able to be present
• 10:31
  and engage and things like that.
• 10:33
  And my brother got married this year
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  so I was able to be really hands-on.
• 10:38
  I mean, I'm catching up now
• 10:39
  but it's fine.
• 10:40
  I was there at the time.
• 10:41
  - Is that because you're self-funding your PhD?
• 10:44
  'Cause I imagine not everybody can just go take time off.
• 10:47
  - I am not self-funding,
• 10:49
  but because it's flexi hours for me-
• 10:52
  - I see.
• 10:53
  - I can work longer hours
• 10:54
  after I can work on the weekend,
• 10:56
  which just means I can be present in those times
• 10:58
  when I wanna be present.
• 11:00
  And I'm not gonna lie,
• 11:00
  being working from home means
• 11:02
  that everyone is constantly asking me to do things.
• 11:05
  So you just think you're not working when you're at home.
• 11:08
  Yeah, 'cause I still live in my family home.
• 11:11
  In terms of my academic highlights,
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  I presented at the PROMS conference
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  and that was a big thing for me
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  because I was actually able to integrate the feedback
• 11:22
  that I got from that presentation into a paper
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  that I'm currently working on.
• 11:26
  So it was quite nice to actually see that through
• 11:28
  and get that into the works this year.
• 11:32
  And another thing,
• 11:33
  which is one of the things I blogged about was being able
• 11:37
  to overcome this learning curve with statistical mapping.
• 11:41
  So I'm a pharmacist,
• 11:42
  I'm not an analyst by background,
• 11:44
  but now I would proudly call myself an analyst
• 11:46
  'cause I've been able to master this technique
• 11:49
  and it's just a really big sense of accomplishment.
• 11:52
  - Awesome.
• 11:53
  - Yeah.
• 11:54
  - Well, look, remind us,
• 11:55
  what does PROM stand for?
• 11:56
  - Patient reported outcome measures.
• 11:58
  - Perfect.
• 11:59
  And I think there is somebody in the room
• 12:01
  that might be able to help you with those stats
• 12:03
  if you ever get stuck.
• 12:06
  I'll come to you next, Connor.
• 12:10
  Connor, our resident statistician expert.
• 12:13
  - That was a really smooth segue.
• 12:17
  Also just remembered I've got Christmas Groot.
• 12:19
  - Oh.
• 12:20
  - Well done.
• 12:21
  - And then we go.
• 12:24
  Yeah, I feel like I've really sort
• 12:25
  of ran the gamut of like the real, real highs
• 12:32
  and real, real laws of like academic life
• 12:35
  over the past year.
• 12:37
  - Oh no.
• 12:38
  - Yeah, so I've had big rejections which were horrible.
• 12:41
  But then I've also had...
• 12:44
  So I got rejected for a job that I applied for,
• 12:46
  which was really sad.
• 12:47
  But then I got the NIHR fellowship,
• 12:50
  which I was really not expecting to get.
• 12:53
  And it was one of those weird bizarre things
• 12:56
  where you put loads of your effort at a job,
• 12:58
  which I was really thought was mine.
• 13:01
  And then this ARC fellowship,
• 13:03
  which I thought they're not gonna be interested out stats.
• 13:07
  And then I sort of did it on a Women of Prayer
• 13:09
  and then they loved it.
• 13:12
  But yeah, so yeah, had a few rejections,
• 13:17
  but the fellowship's been a big, high,
• 13:22
  travelling as well.
• 13:24
  AIC was really fun this year in Amsterdam.
• 13:27
  It was nice not to have to traverse the globe
• 13:32
  to get there.
• 13:35
  It was the first time really I've been to a conference
• 13:37
  and already had connections
• 13:39
  that I knew people were going
• 13:41
  who I've already networked with.
• 13:42
  So I felt like a little bit more grown up researcher
• 13:47
  and I didn't feel like I was going there going,
• 13:49
  "Oh, I need to go and make friends."
• 13:52
  - Yeah, I know exactly.
• 13:53
  I was saying next week,
• 13:54
  I'm going to the motor neuron disease conference
• 13:56
  in Switzerland
• 13:58
  and we don't usually do much.
• 14:00
  Motor neuron disease,
• 14:00
  we kind of do with a LS.
• 14:02
  And the thing that I'm kind of going,
• 14:04
  "Oh no, I won't know anybody
• 14:06
  because I don't know anybody."
• 14:09
  I even emailed some people and said,
• 14:10
  "Hey, are you going?"
• 14:11
  And everybody said no.
• 14:13
  I think it is exciting when you go
• 14:15
  and you're knowing it feels like you're catching up
• 14:16
  with friends,
• 14:17
  as well as enjoying the research as well.
• 14:19
  Well, thanks, Connor.
• 14:21
  And somebody else who knows a lot
• 14:22
  about applying successfully applying
• 14:24
  to the NIHR for funding is Anna Volkmer,
• 14:28
  who I'm gonna come to Anna next.
• 14:30
  God, I'm getting good at this.
• 14:32
  - You are.
• 14:33
  Beautiful segue.
• 14:37
  Yeah, so I'm in the second year
• 14:39
  of my NIHR advanced fellowship
• 14:43
  and one of the big highlights
• 14:44
  for me was when I put in my application
• 14:47
  for my advanced fellowship,
• 14:48
  I included funding for my very own PhD student.
• 14:52
  Ah.
• 14:53
  And they started in September.
• 14:55
  Ah.
• 14:57
  So it felt really exciting
• 14:58
  because I've always-
• 15:01
  - Wanted somebody else to do all your work.
• 15:05
  - I've always loved bossing people around.
• 15:08
  It's not hard.
• 15:10
  But equally,
• 15:11
  so I am mindful that in speech and language therapy,
• 15:15
  there aren't very, very many speech therapists
• 15:18
  who get NIHR funding.
• 15:20
  We're one of the least funded professional groups probably
• 15:24
  because we don't apply for that much.
• 15:27
  But it was something I could really do is offer
• 15:31
  a fully-funded PhD position
• 15:33
  for a speech and language therapist.
• 15:35
  So it's been very exciting
• 15:37
  to be able to have my lovely new PhD students start
• 15:41
  who hopefully you might see a little bit more of.
• 15:46
  - They're gonna come on the podcast
• 15:47
  and talk about their work, aren't they?
• 15:48
  We've been having that conversation offline.
• 15:51
  - Yeah, exactly.
• 15:53
  So that was one of my highlights.
• 15:54
  And I guess another one of my highlights is that
• 15:57
  for this year is I've been...
• 15:59
  Is about wrangling people again
• 16:01
  but one of my big projects has been about trying
• 16:05
  to develop a core outcome set for people
• 16:07
  with primary progressive aphasia
• 16:10
  and part of that work is actually getting other researchers
• 16:13
  to be bothered about it.
• 16:15
  And I just recently host had the last phase of that work
• 16:20
  and managed to wrangle 46 researchers
• 16:24
  from about 20 different countries
• 16:27
  from all different professions
• 16:28
  and forced them to engage with it.
• 16:31
  So that felt like a really big achievement
• 16:33
  to actually manipulate people to do what I want them to do.
• 16:38
  - I'm sure they weren't manipulated at all.
• 16:40
  They saw the incredible value
• 16:41
  of what it was you were doing
• 16:43
  and said, "Yeah, we'll have some of that."
• 16:45
  Because it's funny
• 16:46
  'cause I think through your blogs as well,
• 16:49
  because you've told this story
• 16:50
  for so many years with us,
• 16:51
  now kind of from back
• 16:52
  when you were really just very early stage of your PhD,
• 16:55
  but through to now.
• 16:56
  I've had so many people approach us say,
• 17:00
  "Oh, I always read Anna's blogs."
• 17:04
  And I think you've picked up an international following
• 17:07
  as a result,
• 17:08
  as I'm sure every many of you have as well.
• 17:11
  But yeah, well done.
• 17:13
  Congratulations on getting your student.
• 17:16
  Jodi, but I come to you next.
• 17:19
  - Oh.
• 17:20
  So yeah, I think I've had a few highlights this year,
• 17:23
  thankfully,
• 17:24
  'cause it's always a bit a bit hard.
• 17:26
  I've had a few years during my PhD
• 17:28
  where I did not have any for a year.
• 17:30
  So yeah, it's nice to have a few this year,
• 17:33
  particularly, so I work on drug repurposing
• 17:37
  and I'm using some interesting sort
• 17:40
  of drug wide association study methodology
• 17:42
  and I'm getting the first results out of that now,
• 17:43
  which are really exciting.
• 17:45
  So I'm hoping next year will be a lot of dissemination
• 17:48
  of that and a bit more travel than I've had this year.
• 17:51
  I'm also part of something really exciting
• 17:55
  that's happening in Scotland,
• 17:57
  which is the Brain Health ARC,
• 17:59
  which is sort of an alliance
• 18:01
  of various different groups for brain health research.
• 18:03
  So I'm the EDI rep on that,
• 18:06
  so that's very exciting for me as well.
• 18:11
  Maybe it's just that I'm talking about these things more,
• 18:13
  but I also feel like I've had a lot more conversations
• 18:16
  this year around diversity and inclusion,
• 18:18
  particularly around queerness
• 18:22
  and disability and your diversity
• 18:24
  and actually as well with Scotland,
• 18:26
  the island problem,
• 18:27
  if any of you're familiar with it,
• 18:29
  with the fact that, essentially,
• 18:31
  if you live on an island,
• 18:34
  often good luck,
• 18:35
  which is unfortunate,
• 18:37
  but it seems to be a topic of real discussion this year,
• 18:41
  which is very exciting
• 18:42
  because there's so many islands in Scotland.
• 18:45
  So we need to ensure that dementia care is also accessible
• 18:48
  and equitable on those islands,
• 18:50
  as well as on the mainland.
• 18:52
  - I've read so many of those discussions
• 18:54
  before where they look at that.
• 18:57
  We need to bring Hannah in to look at the economic arguments
• 18:59
  'cause they argue, oh yeah,
• 19:01
  that you can do things for large groups of people,
• 19:03
  but not for small groups.
• 19:05
  When you've really got so much money,
• 19:07
  money is always the excuse, isn't it?
• 19:09
  - Yes.
• 19:10
  So this is where a lot
• 19:11
  of my personal interest comes in
• 19:13
  because I'm all about the small groups
• 19:16
  that people are normally like,
• 19:17
  "But the big group,
• 19:18
  the big group is fine,"
• 19:19
  but I'm interested in the small group.
• 19:23
  - Brilliant.
• 19:24
  Thank you, Jodi.
• 19:25
  And last but not least, Ajantha.
• 19:29
  - Yeah, I guess in terms of professional highlights,
• 19:34
  similar some of the answers from earlier,
• 19:36
  I got to do a lot of travelling
• 19:37
  to different conferences this year
• 19:40
  as far like my final year of my PhD.
• 19:42
  So I went to quite a few earlier in the year.
• 19:46
  I really enjoyed ADPD in Gothenburg in particular.
• 19:49
  It was a really cool conference.
• 19:51
  I got to meet a lot of really interesting people
• 19:54
  and was even able to go later in the year to the US
• 19:57
  to visit some of the labs
• 19:58
  and some people who I met,
• 20:00
  which is really nice of them to have
• 20:02
  and show me around,
• 20:03
  which is really cool.
• 20:05
  And then while travelling around the US,
• 20:07
  I met some friends there as well.
• 20:10
  I was also there for the Quadball World Cup,
• 20:14
  quadball which previously used to be called quidditch,
• 20:17
  which, if you're unfamiliar,
• 20:19
  look it up, it's great.
• 20:21
  But that was really fun.
• 20:22
  I got to see some of my friends from back home
• 20:23
  in Australia there as well.
• 20:25
  My brother was on the Australian team,
• 20:27
  so that was really fun to watch him playing.
• 20:30
  And this is not getting him more
• 20:31
  into the personal highlights I guess as well.
• 20:34
  - Did you get Victor Clem's autograph?
• 20:39
  - That's the dream.
• 20:41
  - Sorry, I wasn't marking with that.
• 20:43
  I've been to watch it
• 20:44
  'cause they play it on the university fields in Oxford,
• 20:48
  which is where I've been to watch a few times before.
• 20:50
  So you were talking,
• 20:51
  you were gonna add to that then.
• 20:52
  Sorry, I interrupted.
• 20:54
  - Yeah, my big personal highlight
• 20:55
  for the year really is that for the last several years,
• 20:58
  my partner and I have really been playing
• 21:00
  the two body problem in that at the start of 2020.
• 21:04
  So like pre-COVID 2020,
• 21:06
  she started her PhD in Sydney in psychology.
• 21:09
  And two months later
• 21:11
  I got my offer to come to do a PhD at Oxford.
• 21:15
  And so I've been doing sort of like the longest
• 21:17
  of long distances for the last couple of years,
• 21:19
  about 17,000 kilometres,
• 21:21
  also during COVID,
• 21:22
  which was a interesting time.
• 21:24
  But this year,
• 21:25
  so halfway through the year,
• 21:26
  she finished her PhD submitted,
• 21:28
  and she has moved over here SNU now back
• 21:32
  and living together.
• 21:32
  So that's a big, exciting moment for us
• 21:35
  and it's quite a highlight for me.
• 21:37
  - Brilliant.
• 21:38
  And how's that going?
• 21:40
  - It's been-
• 21:41
  - Being in one place?
• 21:42
  No.
• 21:45
  - It's quite exciting, really.
• 21:46
  It's just like all the incidental interactions
• 21:49
  that you miss all hanging out at home.
• 21:52
  We are not really doing anything together,
• 21:53
  but you still are together.
• 21:54
  It's quite nice.
• 21:56
  - Brilliant.
• 21:56
  I'm glad it's a success.
• 21:58
  Well, what an amazing 2023.
• 22:00
  You've all had such brilliant years.
• 22:02
  I mean, obviously,
• 22:03
  there's those highs and lows
• 22:04
  that everybody's talked about,
• 22:05
  which I think we've come to expect in academia.
• 22:09
  And I don't know if I should add mine.
• 22:12
  We haven't got time to add all mine,
• 22:14
  but certainly I think dementia research will be refunded
• 22:16
  for the next six years.
• 22:19
  Five, six years is a good thing.
• 22:21
  It means I've still got a job
• 22:22
  and you can still keep listening to our podcast.
• 22:25
  That was a good good highlight.
• 22:30
  I mean, generally speaking,
• 22:31
  the kind of collaborations that we continue to forge
• 22:33
  and the opportunity to work with so many different people
• 22:37
  and attend conference events.
• 22:38
  I love that it's so dynamic,
• 22:43
  which is what I love most
• 22:44
  about my job is we get this opportunity
• 22:46
  to just do fun, cool stuff
• 22:50
  and we've got some more fun stuff.
• 22:52
  Go look out for our app in the new year.
• 22:54
  I'm not gonna say much more than that now.
• 22:56
  Brilliant.
• 22:57
  Well, it's time for one of these.
• 23:00
  (Christmas song)
• 23:12
  Okay, are you ready?
• 23:13
  It's time to take a break
• 23:14
  and move on to the first part of our festive quiz.
• 23:18
  This podcast is gonna be two hours long
• 23:19
  if we take two hours long doing this.
• 23:21
  So we can do this pretty quickly.
• 23:23
  We're gonna have five questions.
• 23:25
  The first five,
• 23:26
  I've got a bit of a sciencey Christmas theme
• 23:29
  and you're gonna indicate that you are ready to answer
• 23:33
  by saying your name as quickly as you can.
• 23:35
  So I was gonna say fingers on buzzers,
• 23:38
  but that doesn't quite work.
• 23:40
  Get ready.
• 23:40
  Are you ready?
• 23:41
  Question one.
• 23:44
  What is more common name
• 23:46
  for frozen water often seen during...
• 23:49
  Jodi.
• 23:51
  Go, Jodi.
• 23:52
  - Ice.
• 23:55
  - I'm gonna take snow or ice,
• 23:57
  but I was about to say often seen in common climates
• 24:00
  and at Christmas
• 24:02
  and there you go.
• 24:03
  - And Newcastle right now.
• 24:05
  - Oh really?
• 24:06
  It's snowing in Newcastle.
• 24:07
  - Oh yeah.
• 24:09
  - There we go.
• 24:09
  Oh, let me give Jodi its tick.
• 24:12
  Question two,
• 24:14
  what is the name of the process plants use
• 24:16
  to make food which is essential for Christmas trees?
• 24:19
  - AJ.
• 24:20
  - AJ
• 24:22
  - Photosynthesis.
• 24:23
  - Correct, well done.
• 24:26
  You got a point for you.
• 24:27
  Question three,
• 24:28
  true or false?
• 24:31
  Reindeer have red noses due
• 24:32
  to rich network of blood vessels.
• 24:37
  - Clarissa.
• 24:38
  - Go, Clarissa.
• 24:39
  - No.
• 24:42
  - I'm afraid that's incorrect.
• 24:44
  It's true,
• 24:44
  it's true.
• 24:47
  Would anybody else like to go
• 24:49
  - Anna.
• 24:50
  - Oh, Anna.
• 24:51
  I mean there's only one other option, right?
• 24:53
  I didn't think this through.
• 24:56
  Well done.
• 24:58
  Okay, question four,
• 25:00
  what do we call scientists
• 25:02
  who study weather like predicting white Christmases?
• 25:06
  - Clarissa.
• 25:07
  - AJ,
• 25:08
  - Meteorologist.
• 25:09
  - Clarissa.
• 25:10
  Yeah, meteorologist.
• 25:13
  Well done.
• 25:14
  That was very close, AJ.
• 25:14
  And question five,
• 25:15
  last one in this round,
• 25:17
  what is the term for the shortest day
• 25:19
  of the year which occurs around Christmas time?
• 25:21
  - Connor.
• 25:23
  - Connor.
• 25:24
  - Winter solstice.
• 25:25
  - Correct.
• 25:26
  Well done.
• 25:27
  So at the end of our first round of questions.
• 25:31
  AJ, Connor, Clarissa, Anna,
• 25:34
  and Jodi all have one point each.
• 25:37
  Hannah and Sam.
• 25:38
  All right, Sam was not here.
• 25:40
  - What's the prize for the best,
• 25:41
  for the most points at the end of this, by the way,
• 25:43
  - I'm gonna surprise you at the end.
• 25:45
  - Okay.
• 25:46
  - You're gonna be surprised,
• 25:47
  it might be something you already have,
• 25:49
  but you'll get another one.
• 25:52
  Brilliant, thank you so much.
• 25:54
  So halfway scores all even Stevens.
• 26:10
  So that's enough of that.
• 26:11
  We talked earlier about our personal highlights.
• 26:14
  What I want to ask you now is,
• 26:16
  what are the big discoveries
• 26:17
  or exciting themes that have emerged more generally
• 26:20
  from your research fields?
• 26:25
  Ajantha, you went last time.
• 26:26
  You can go first this time.
• 26:30
  - I mean, it's hard
• 26:31
  to go past the two big drug announcements
• 26:34
  that came out for Alzheimer's earlier this year.
• 26:38
  I guess that's kind of in maybe some way,
• 26:39
  some sense,
• 26:40
  everyone's highlight
• 26:41
  'cause we're all in the same broader field,
• 26:43
  so maybe I'll touch on those briefly.
• 26:46
  Yeah, of course.
• 26:48
  And that's absolutely huge news, I think, for the field,
• 26:51
  no matter sort of where you stand on on them,
• 26:53
  just any kind of kind of breakthroughs both scientific
• 26:57
  and regulatory, I think, is really exciting.
• 27:00
  But maybe a bit more specific
• 27:03
  to disease mechanisms then,
• 27:06
  I think it's really interesting
• 27:07
  how we're seeing a massive sort of proliferation
• 27:10
  in looking at targets,
• 27:12
  looking at pathways beyond just tau and amyloid,
• 27:16
  these different proteins that accumulate in the disease.
• 27:19
  And we are looking a lot more at things
• 27:21
  like glia and inflammation,
• 27:23
  a lot more at things like lipids.
• 27:26
  There's a huge amount of research at the moment
• 27:28
  that seems to be going into looking at the role
• 27:30
  of different lipids play in disease both in Alzheimer's
• 27:33
  and in Parkinson's disease,
• 27:34
  which is really cool.
• 27:37
  And also beyond the sort of disease mechanisms front,
• 27:41
  all the stuff in biomarkers, I think,
• 27:43
  is really, really exciting.
• 27:45
  And I've written a little bit about that this year.
• 27:47
  But I think both those fronts,
• 27:48
  there's a lot going on just
• 27:50
  beyond sort of headline drug discovery type things.
• 27:53
  And I think they all bode really well
• 27:55
  for the future as well.
• 27:56
  - Which talks well, doesn't it?
• 27:57
  'Cause there's still quite a lot of kind
• 27:59
  of those amyloid touts,
• 28:01
  well, amyloid particularly sceptics
• 28:03
  that we see at conferences.
• 28:05
  So it's good that there's that breadth of research going on
• 28:08
  because I think everybody agrees
• 28:09
  it's probably not gonna be one thing,
• 28:11
  it's gonna be it's combination of factors.
• 28:13
  Thank you very much.
• 28:14
  - Yeah, it speaks to that importance like diversity both
• 28:16
  within researchers,
• 28:17
  but also in what we research, I think.
• 28:19
  - Exactly.
• 28:20
  Thank you.
• 28:21
  What about in your field, Jodi?
• 28:24
  - Yeah, so I think you fell
• 28:26
  on some very interesting points there.
• 28:27
  I think for me,
• 28:28
  I struggle a wee bit with...
• 28:30
  I'm very excited about these drugs.
• 28:31
  I struggle a wee bit with the accessibility aspect of them
• 28:35
  and that that is a huge problem
• 28:38
  and a huge overarching question.
• 28:39
  So for me with drug repurposing,
• 28:41
  or if anyone watching doesn't know,
• 28:43
  is essentially taking drugs
• 28:44
  that are already clinically approved
• 28:46
  and therefore their safety profile,
• 28:48
  things like that are known
• 28:49
  and seeing if they have any utility in dementia,
• 28:52
  which would save us millions upon millions
• 28:55
  because we wouldn't have to start the whole process
• 28:56
  from the beginning
• 28:58
  and would also lead us to the clinic more quickly.
• 29:00
  So for me,
• 29:01
  this is a really, really exciting avenue for development
• 29:05
  because it's potentially more equitable and more inclusive.
• 29:11
  So yeah, I'm a bit more excited about that
• 29:13
  than I am about the new drugs currently.
• 29:16
  Currently.
• 29:18
  - I've come across various trials over the years
• 29:20
  that have repurposed particular drugs,
• 29:23
  but I have to say usually kind of at the point
• 29:26
  that they're trying to recruit people
• 29:27
  and there's a lot of talk at the start,
• 29:29
  but then I've never followed them through long enough
• 29:32
  to see whether they've actually gone on.
• 29:35
  I'm assuming that they didn't
• 29:37
  because there hasn't been been some announcement
• 29:39
  about, "Oh, this new blood pressure medication is
• 29:41
  something we should give to everybody to prevent
• 29:44
  or to to deal with it."
• 29:45
  Is there other any realistic,
• 29:47
  exciting prospects that we've found in the last year
• 29:50
  from drug repurposing?
• 29:52
  - That's a good question.
• 29:56
  I think one of those things
• 29:58
  about drug repurposing as well is that I would say
• 30:00
  that a year isn't the greatest timeframe over which to work.
• 30:03
  I understand that this is like a retrospective fund 2022.
• 30:06
  - Definitely, yeah.
• 30:08
  - But I think, I mean I'm quite excited
• 30:10
  about my own work as I've said,
• 30:11
  but I'm at a stage where it requires a lot
• 30:13
  of validation at the moment.
• 30:16
  So I wouldn't want to talk too much about that
• 30:17
  at this point in time.
• 30:20
  But I think there is exciting development
• 30:22
  as we have more in the way of analytical approaches to it
• 30:27
  and we have huge datasets.
• 30:29
  Like I work in UK Biobank,
• 30:31
  which is half a million people,
• 30:32
  my analysis is done in half a million people,
• 30:35
  which is huge numbers compared
• 30:37
  to a lot of research in the field.
• 30:40
  I think that sort of thing
• 30:42
  and that sort of access level is quite exciting
• 30:44
  when it comes to the purposes of doing things
• 30:46
  like drug repurposing
• 30:48
  - And we've heard a lot this year about
• 30:49
  AI tools being applied
• 30:51
  to those datasets to kind of...
• 30:53
  and like the MND-SMART trial
• 30:55
  from Edinburgh being employed on other diseases,
• 30:58
  that slightly new dynamic approach
• 31:00
  to delivering on repurposed drug studies
• 31:03
  to practically test and help with.
• 31:05
  So that's exciting stuff.
• 31:07
  Brilliant.
• 31:08
  Thanks, Jodi.
• 31:09
  What about you, Connor?
• 31:12
  - Well, I can probably very smoothly segue from that
• 31:16
  because my fellowship is in looking kind
• 31:19
  of a drug repurpose,
• 31:20
  repurposing drugs with anti-inflammatories.
• 31:26
  And my two highlights were going
• 31:27
  to be the grown amount of AI,
• 31:33
  which I'm still a bit of a AI machine learning sceptic
• 31:36
  in the vast majority of cases that it seems
• 31:39
  to be implemented in dementia research at the minute.
• 31:42
  But I think it's a really fascinating debate
• 31:44
  and you can get into some very spicy debates
• 31:47
  between hardcore statisticians
• 31:50
  and hardcore computer scientists who come
• 31:55
  and analysing questions in completely different ways.
• 31:58
  And it gets quite spicy,
• 32:00
  but that's what kind of makes it interesting.
• 32:04
  But yeah, also there's more huge data sets come
• 32:09
  and become more available.
• 32:10
  You've got dementia platforms UK,
• 32:13
  which are recruiting more and more datasets
• 32:16
  into their platform.
• 32:18
  Biobank, we just got access at Newcastle to the,
• 32:23
  can't remember all the word, but CPRD,
• 32:25
  the clinical research data link,
• 32:28
  which is a huge database of primary care records.
• 32:34
  So that really helps you sort
• 32:36
  of tie in together these thing often things which are...
• 32:39
  You wanna look at altogether,
• 32:41
  but you can't.
• 32:42
  So you can either look at medication in one dataset
• 32:44
  and clinical clinical records in one
• 32:48
  and MRI scans in another.
• 32:50
  And they're all disjointed over different areas
• 32:54
  and I think now you're starting
• 32:55
  to see these bigger datasets sort
• 32:58
  of really merge their data together
• 33:01
  so you can do some much more exciting analysis with them.
• 33:05
  - Those advancements
• 33:06
  in technology are really making a difference
• 33:07
  in that space, aren't they, as well?
• 33:10
  And I doubt anybody's got
• 33:11
  'cause I don't think anybody here works
• 33:13
  in biomarkers particularly.
• 33:15
  So we should throw in there that the advancements
• 33:17
  in blood biomarkers are clearly a hot topic for 20...
• 33:20
  I mean, they've been a hot topic for many years,
• 33:22
  but it feels like we're closer than ever,
• 33:25
  particularly in the UK with this new large grant
• 33:28
  that the charities have come together
• 33:29
  to actually implement a blood-based biomarker dementia test
• 33:34
  in the NHS within five years
• 33:38
  and test it in the real world.
• 33:39
  And I suppose interestingly,
• 33:41
  those advancements in blood biomarkers must also add
• 33:44
  into drug trials of repurposing
• 33:46
  'cause you've got so much more information you can get
• 33:49
  from blood now while somebody's on the trial
• 33:51
  than you could years before possibly.
• 33:55
  Brilliant, thank you very much.
• 33:58
  Hannah.
• 34:00
  I've got Hannah.
• 34:01
  Hannah, I confused you though.
• 34:03
  I was looking at Hannah
• 34:05
  but talking, saying Hannah.
• 34:07
  I'm gonna say Hannah,
• 34:09
  - That's fine.
• 34:10
  I've always grown up with a Hannah in my class at school
• 34:14
  or someone or an Anne,
• 34:16
  people's names always get mixed up.
• 34:19
  So I was lucky enough to be the podcast host
• 34:22
  for the MAB discussion that we've recorded.
• 34:27
  And I think that whole,
• 34:29
  or I do think that all these disease modifying
• 34:34
  all the kind of advances
• 34:36
  in disease modifying drugs are super exciting and enormous.
• 34:39
  Not just because of what they are,
• 34:41
  but also for people themselves
• 34:43
  and their family members
• 34:44
  'cause of the hope it creates.
• 34:47
  I guess with my clinical hat on,
• 34:49
  I have been hearing people ask me for decades,
• 34:54
  when are we gonna get anything
• 34:57
  that is anywhere near a cure?
• 35:00
  And suddenly, this has provided a lot more hope and money.
• 35:03
  And although I think
• 35:04
  there's a huge accessibility issue I do,
• 35:06
  I completely agree.
• 35:08
  What I've also noticed is there's lots more money
• 35:11
  that's available to do research into access.
• 35:19
  I'm quite excited by the work
• 35:21
  that I'm lucky enough to collaborate with Clewis Ran
• 35:24
  who's kind of diagonally above my head in my picture.
• 35:27
  Probably not when everyone else's
• 35:29
  but we've been collaborating on a big piece
• 35:31
  of work looking at.
• 35:35
  I guess access to diagnosis,
• 35:39
  access to care for people who have dementia,
• 35:43
  but who are from more diverse backgrounds.
• 35:46
  And I think that's something that's really...
• 35:47
  And looking more narrowly
• 35:49
  in speech and language therapy and dementia,
• 35:51
  it's certainly a conversation more people have been having.
• 35:53
  So not just can a person get a diagnosis,
• 35:56
  but can a person access an intervention?
• 35:59
  And if so, what adaptations do we need to make?
• 36:02
  So we are doing lots more projects looking at adaptations
• 36:06
  of interventions into different languages,
• 36:10
  but also cultures.
• 36:12
  We just recently hosted a bit of a conference,
• 36:15
  a better conversations conference
• 36:17
  that particularly focused on that topic.
• 36:19
  And I think that's super exciting.
• 36:21
  Given I've grown up in London,
• 36:23
  I myself a little bit of a mishmash of nationalities.
• 36:27
  I feel that's really exciting
• 36:29
  to be able to be talking about that
• 36:31
  in terms of real life
• 36:34
  and how we can rationalise that
• 36:35
  into day-to-day research and care.
• 36:38
  - I think that's come up on the drug exam
• 36:39
  and in care now, isn't it, that personalised?
• 36:42
  We talked a lot about personalised medicine,
• 36:44
  but personalised care
• 36:45
  or we used to talk about person centred care, didn't we?
• 36:48
  Whereas I think we are getting more broadly now
• 36:51
  to talk about,
• 36:52
  broadly think about people as individuals
• 36:53
  and what they need both
• 36:54
  in terms of drugs and medications
• 36:57
  'cause no one type
• 36:58
  of dementia is necessarily gonna be the same
• 37:00
  or symptoms can progress differently,
• 37:01
  but also in the care they receive as well.
• 37:04
  It is an exciting time
• 37:06
  and I really enjoyed the Lecanemab, Aducanumab podcast.
• 37:13
  We did get a little bit of traction on social media,
• 37:16
  questioning some of the discussion that went on there,
• 37:20
  which I quite enjoyed.
• 37:21
  It was deliberately provocative,
• 37:23
  but I think so John and Cath and Nick did an an amazing job
• 37:28
  of preventing a very balanced picture
• 37:31
  of where we're at with that,
• 37:32
  which is, yes, this is complicated to implement.
• 37:34
  Yes, they're not immediately gonna be available.
• 37:38
  And yes, not everybody's gonna sue for them,
• 37:40
  but it is progress and you're right,
• 37:41
  it's brought so much extra money
• 37:43
  and focus that prospect
• 37:45
  because also the knock on effect has been
• 37:47
  that everybody realises that you can't prescribe
• 37:51
  that drug if we haven't got good enough diagnostics.
• 37:53
  So there's also been a lot of research now money invested
• 37:56
  in improving diagnostics,
• 37:58
  which hasn't just been blood biomarkers.
• 37:59
  It's been about different scanning techniques,
• 38:02
  cognitive online, cognitive testing,
• 38:06
  which has then brought us more towards prevention.
• 38:08
  So I agree.
• 38:10
  Thank you very much.
• 38:11
  - And actually, I think there's also realise
• 38:13
  it's not a feta complete,
• 38:14
  it's not gonna completely cure everything.
• 38:16
  I think we also need the care has to be funded alongside.
• 38:19
  So I think it's actually just drawn more money overall
• 38:22
  to the sector.
• 38:24
  - Go ahead.
• 38:25
  - You made a brilliant point
• 38:26
  in that podcast about if you prolong people's lives
• 38:29
  by taking this drug,
• 38:31
  but they don't get better,
• 38:32
  they stay the same,
• 38:34
  then that means people are going to need care for longer.
• 38:37
  - They will.
• 38:37
  - And the kind of interventions they're gonna need,
• 38:39
  they're gonna need it for longer as well.
• 38:41
  I worry that researching that is gonna be lag behind.
• 38:46
  We'll get the treatment and the drug
• 38:47
  and then everybody will go,
• 38:48
  "Oh, wait a second."
• 38:50
  But hopefully not.
• 38:51
  And you are amazing in finding that point.
• 38:55
  - Thank you.
• 38:57
  - Hannah.
• 38:58
  What's going on in the world of health economics?
• 39:01
  - So yeah, so for me,
• 39:03
  'cause my research is kind
• 39:04
  of it's into health-related quality of life,
• 39:06
  so like I said, PROMS,
• 39:09
  patient reported outcomes.
• 39:10
  So I've got kind of two fields I'm interested in,
• 39:12
  which is PROMS,
• 39:14
  but also like how economic evaluations take place.
• 39:17
  And just a segue from the point you just made about care,
• 39:21
  that's the kind of thing that I'm interested in,
• 39:23
  in terms of the research developments
• 39:24
  that have been happening potentially over the last year,
• 39:27
  but a little bit longer
• 39:29
  in terms of what are being considered as costs
• 39:33
  as part of an economic evaluation.
• 39:35
  So typically, we have a very direct costing system
• 39:39
  and like we know with people living with dementia,
• 39:42
  there's a lot of informal care that's given,
• 39:45
  there's a lot of spillover effects and these costs,
• 39:48
  but, of course, benefits
• 39:49
  from treatments aren't necessarily being considered.
• 39:52
  So there's this kind of change in attitude
• 39:55
  and approach in research that's slowly happening.
• 39:57
  There's a lot more interest in spillover effects.
• 40:00
  That's the term we tend to use in health economics
• 40:03
  and just how we can consider these benefits
• 40:08
  and, of course, costs to informal carers.
• 40:11
  So yeah, that's the kind of thing
• 40:12
  that I'm hoping to see more of
• 40:14
  and I'm looking forward to seeing more of.
• 40:16
  - And we keep hearing, don't we,
• 40:17
  about the kind of...
• 40:19
  It just seems to be one review
• 40:20
  after another into the costs of social care
• 40:22
  and how we can better deliver social care
• 40:26
  in an affordable way.
• 40:27
  The problem is,
• 40:28
  I'm not sure that there is such thing
• 40:29
  as an affordable way to deliver social care.
• 40:31
  It's expensive and you either have it
• 40:34
  or you don't.
• 40:36
  Personally, personal opinion,
• 40:38
  not the view of the pension researcher.
• 40:42
  I mean, does there feel like there's some hope
• 40:45
  on the horizon for that?
• 40:47
  - Yeah, I mean, yeah, I certainly think so.
• 40:50
  Less in terms of social care directly,
• 40:53
  but more in terms of how we are considering the perspective
• 40:57
  of an informal carer.
• 41:00
  Like if we were costing the care,
• 41:03
  the time, the energy,
• 41:04
  the wellbeing of the carer,
• 41:05
  when we do economic evaluations,
• 41:07
  the NHS would essentially just be bankrupt.
• 41:10
  Like they're such a central part of dementia care.
• 41:12
  So I think there's this kind of change in attitude
• 41:14
  towards how we can include those things
• 41:18
  in economic evaluation,
• 41:19
  but it's really hard to change
• 41:22
  how things have always been done
• 41:24
  and consider how we want them
• 41:26
  to be comparable going forward.
• 41:28
  So there's kind of like a move
• 41:30
  towards a more extensive quality.
• 41:32
  So that's the quality adjusted life year
• 41:34
  and how we can extend that.
• 41:36
  That's happening now.
• 41:38
  - Which gets me to thinking, actually,
• 41:40
  'cause it just reminded me that a theme
• 41:43
  that's come up on the podcast
• 41:44
  throughout the year has been implementation
• 41:47
  or lack of implementation
• 41:49
  or implementation science,
• 41:50
  or what more can we better do to implement the things
• 41:53
  that we create that we know work.
• 41:55
  And that economic evaluation seems
• 41:58
  to be more important than ever to build on that case
• 42:02
  for why this should be done
• 42:04
  to make the argument that this will...
• 42:08
  It shouldn't come down to money, did it?
• 42:10
  But if you can prove that,
• 42:12
  not just about the cost,
• 42:13
  that it improves the quality of life
• 42:15
  that then contributes overall to wellbeing
• 42:18
  and the money side of things.
• 42:20
  Things will become more implementable.
• 42:23
  We need somebody like you,
• 42:25
  a health economist on every study,
• 42:27
  to add to that
• 42:28
  'cause I think it would add so much weight
• 42:29
  because, unfortunately, it's also often an afterthought
• 42:33
  as part of a study.
• 42:34
  Oh, we'll crack in,
• 42:35
  do the research,
• 42:36
  and then we'll do the evaluation later.
• 42:37
  So if you embed it from the start,
• 42:39
  I think it so much,
• 42:41
  so many more valuable interventions would get implemented
• 42:47
  if they have that evidence there as part of it.
• 42:50
  Thank you very much, Hannah.
• 42:52
  Clarissa, you've been very patient.
• 42:53
  Well done.
• 42:54
  - That's all right.
• 42:57
  - What's hot in the inequalities research field?
• 43:01
  - What's hot
• 43:02
  - Games.
• 43:03
  I hear games are the thing,
• 43:04
  the way of the future.
• 43:05
  - Yes, but I wanna pick up on Anna's point of social care
• 43:09
  because that's really what I do.
• 43:11
  I look at social care and inequalities and that,
• 43:13
  and I find it positive, really positive
• 43:17
  that there's been a much bigger investment now
• 43:19
  in social care research, at least,
• 43:21
  in the past year,
• 43:22
  not necessarily, unfortunately, in social care
• 43:25
  from the government,
• 43:26
  but in research.
• 43:28
  So we have a research programme for social care,
• 43:32
  for example, that's launched.
• 43:33
  We've got a new research support service
• 43:37
  that's based in Lancaster,
• 43:39
  which is solely focusing on social care.
• 43:41
  And I'm fortunate enough to be part of that.
• 43:44
  And there's lots of other parts
• 43:46
  that supports investment
• 43:49
  into how we can improve the lives
• 43:51
  of vulnerable people
• 43:53
  and their families from a social care point of view
• 43:55
  in terms of research measures.
• 43:57
  But then you are right,
• 43:58
  how do we translate that effectively
• 44:01
  when the social care landscape isn't really well-funded?
• 44:04
  So the game may offer a low cost intervention perhaps,
• 44:10
  but that's just, obviously, I'm biassed,
• 44:12
  I love the game.
• 44:13
  But what we need to do is find,
• 44:16
  I suppose, low cost interventions
• 44:17
  to help work around the limited budget within social care
• 44:21
  to help people access care more equitably.
• 44:23
  It's really tough
• 44:25
  and it's really frustrating
• 44:26
  as an academic when we suddenly find things that work,
• 44:30
  I don't know dementia can navigate
• 44:32
  as admiral nurses, et cetera,
• 44:34
  but then there's no more investment
• 44:36
  because we kind of know they would reduce inequalities
• 44:39
  and improve care,
• 44:41
  but how far can we go?
• 44:43
  We can go to policymakers, decision makers,
• 44:46
  but will it actually be taken up?
• 44:47
  So I think that's something we all have
• 44:51
  to work with that sector organisations a lot with
• 44:53
  to kind of raise awareness.
• 44:56
  - I agree.
• 44:57
  I haven't thought...
• 44:58
  I mean, so the NIHR this last year has invested lots
• 45:02
  in social care, hasn't it?
• 45:03
  It's kind of renewed contracts
• 45:05
  with the school for social care.
• 45:06
  It's got the new lots of new services.
• 45:08
  I don't know how that plays out elsewhere in the world.
• 45:10
  I mean, tell us in the podcast comments,
• 45:13
  how well-funded is social care research?
• 45:15
  Where in the world you are?
• 45:18
  I think in the UK,
• 45:19
  it's definitely come up the agenda
• 45:20
  and it's getting a good slice of funding.
• 45:23
  It's not all money going
• 45:25
  into fundamental science like some people might think,
• 45:28
  but yeah, thank you, Clarissa.
• 45:30
  And the point about creating lots of small low cost,
• 45:35
  I think it's that knowledge, isn't it?
• 45:36
  It's not necessarily
• 45:37
  that you need a great, new,
• 45:39
  expensive multimillion pound service
• 45:42
  to deliver interventions,
• 45:43
  but having small things
• 45:45
  that people can do day in, day out
• 45:46
  and evidence to back them up
• 45:48
  and then a way to train people
• 45:51
  to make them aware of it is,
• 45:53
  it could actually be more impactful quickly.
• 45:57
  - And a lot of buy-in and support
• 45:59
  from the managers of all those organisations.
• 46:01
  That's kind of key to implementing them.
• 46:04
  - I have a personal bit of a bug about this.
• 46:07
  I think over the last 10 years,
• 46:09
  we've become a little bit too dependent
• 46:11
  upon relying on digital methods to reach people.
• 46:15
  And so when I used to work on joint dementia research,
• 46:19
  you kind of fell back on that.
• 46:20
  Twitter became the new way
• 46:21
  of telling everybody everything or email,
• 46:25
  we'd send email bullets,
• 46:26
  or we'd do Twitter.
• 46:28
  During the pandemic,
• 46:29
  we just relied entirely on webinars.
• 46:32
  And I think that old school method
• 46:35
  of being face-to-face, in-person,
• 46:38
  going meeting people, talking to them,
• 46:40
  presenting something in front of them standing,
• 46:44
  arranging meetings,
• 46:45
  I think some of that's been lost a little bit, I think.
• 46:48
  And I think some of these things,
• 46:50
  we'd like staff in healthcare systems to do.
• 46:54
  We need to actually get out of our chairs
• 46:57
  and our offices and our back bedrooms,
• 46:59
  wherever we are,
• 47:00
  and actually go out and talk to people.
• 47:02
  And I think things will stick more personal view.
• 47:05
  Does anybody disagree or anything add to that?
• 47:08
  - Yeah, you're right.
• 47:09
  - I was just gonna say, Adam,
• 47:11
  at the Dem Comm meeting yesterday,
• 47:12
  we were kind of...
• 47:13
  There was a session on impact and there's somewhat,
• 47:17
  I can't remember his name now,
• 47:19
  but he's based at Newcastle,
• 47:20
  and it has links on the NHR website
• 47:25
  so you can find him
• 47:26
  and he has a sort of framework
• 47:27
  for I think called it like impact analysis
• 47:31
  and it kind of breaks it down into like
• 47:32
  who are your stakeholders of your research
• 47:35
  and in what ways do they care about your success
• 47:39
  and does your success matter to them?
• 47:40
  And he kind of breaks it down
• 47:43
  into I'm gonna send an email a week to this person
• 47:47
  and say this specifically
• 47:49
  and then try and get a in-person meeting with that person
• 47:52
  and try and build those kind of,
• 47:53
  just like what you're saying,
• 47:54
  like not just throw it out into the internet
• 47:57
  and hope someone cares.
• 48:00
  Actually, think about who you wanna do
• 48:02
  and doing a sort of systematic planned way.
• 48:05
  - There's a reason why people
• 48:07
  like drug companies still have drug reps,
• 48:11
  that face-to-face contact
• 48:13
  that going out there is still incredibly powerful.
• 48:15
  And I think in implementing some
• 48:18
  of these implement these interventions,
• 48:19
  we could make more use of that.
• 48:21
  The problem is it's time, isn't it?
• 48:23
  It's time now to get out
• 48:25
  and spend time talking to people.
• 48:27
  But I think if we can build that in
• 48:29
  as part of our plans,
• 48:30
  we might have more success.
• 48:32
  Well, that was all very serious, wasn't it?
• 48:33
  But thank you so much, everybody.
• 48:37
  Is there anything we think we might miss?
• 48:39
  There's gonna be people listening going out.
• 48:40
  Did you not talk about this big thing
• 48:42
  that happened in '23?
• 48:43
  I think we talked about biomarkers,
• 48:45
  we've talked about new drugs,
• 48:46
  we've talked about care.
• 48:48
  Any other hot things that we've missed?
• 48:53
  We talked about technology.
• 48:54
  There's so much technology going on now.
• 48:59
  - I think it mentioned earlier the sort of, like,
• 49:01
  you have this interesting divide now
• 49:03
  between like the sort of amyloid sceptics
• 49:06
  and the sort of amyloid pushers almost.
• 49:10
  And there was an interesting phrase used
• 49:11
  at AAIC this year with the...
• 49:14
  I think it was the NIH redefinition of dementia
• 49:18
  and they used the phrase,
• 49:21
  if amyloid can be detected in the brain,
• 49:25
  then it's a move towards saying that
• 49:27
  that person will get Dementia.
• 49:31
  It's not a question.
• 49:33
  If amyloids in your brain,
• 49:35
  it's inevitable.
• 49:37
  And I thought that was a really-
• 49:39
  - Is it, though?
• 49:40
  I thought we've...
• 49:41
  Oh, I suppose
• 49:42
  - No.
• 49:42
  Well, it's not.
• 49:43
  I mean there's lots of studies
• 49:44
  to say that people live with amyloid in their brains,
• 49:47
  perfectly healthy until the dying.
• 49:48
  - I suppose mortem studies have showed presence of amyloid,
• 49:51
  haven't they, with people? - Yeah.
• 49:53
  But it's an interesting sort of shift
• 49:55
  in how people are thinking about the disease.
• 49:58
  - Maybe if you live long enough,
• 50:00
  is it a case that if you live long enough,
• 50:03
  you will eventually, definitely,
• 50:06
  but you might have to live,
• 50:07
  some people might have
• 50:08
  to live till they're like in their late nineties
• 50:09
  or something where-
• 50:11
  - Yeah.
• 50:13
  I think that's what they were getting at.
• 50:15
  But it's an interesting sort of philosophical almost
• 50:18
  because you can argue if you lived to 200,
• 50:19
  you would get dementia inevitably.
• 50:23
  - There was an interesting thing.
• 50:24
  So yesterday, I went to the IDEAL Study.
• 50:27
  So the IDEAL Study is programme run by Linda Clare of Exeter
• 50:30
  that's been going on for many, many years.
• 50:33
  I think it was one of the first big studies funded
• 50:35
  by the SRC out of the Prime Minister's challenge
• 50:38
  on dementia,
• 50:39
  which is 2012, 2013.
• 50:41
  But it's delivered so much over the course
• 50:44
  of many years.
• 50:45
  And one of the things that they reported yesterday
• 50:48
  in their overall review of findings was that people,
• 50:51
  and this probably isn't the news we want to hear,
• 50:55
  but people who didn't worry too much about Alzheimer's
• 50:59
  when they got a diagnosis,
• 51:00
  they did think about it
• 51:02
  as a natural kind of part of our,
• 51:03
  "Well, that's just 'cause I'm getting old."
• 51:05
  Actually had better outcomes
• 51:06
  than people who knew all about it
• 51:08
  and thought about their disease and their dementia
• 51:10
  and called it Alzheimer's disease
• 51:12
  and were very aware of it more,
• 51:16
  that they had better outcomes,
• 51:18
  the people who didn't worry about it kind of thing
• 51:21
  as opposed to the well-informed people that went on
• 51:24
  and knew all about the disease,
• 51:26
  which I thought was astounding.
• 51:28
  We spent a lot of time trying to make sure
• 51:30
  that there's increased awareness, haven't we?
• 51:33
  - I don't think that
• 51:34
  that's all that surprising, though,
• 51:35
  'cause when you consider
• 51:36
  like surgical outcomes, for example,
• 51:37
  positive attitude going into surgery shows
• 51:40
  that you have better outcome at least psychologically.
• 51:44
  So I guess it's just a variant of that, right?
• 51:47
  - Yeah, I mean I did.
• 51:49
  Well, I didn't know that about surgery.
• 51:51
  But yeah, so that was...
• 51:52
  And if you head to our YouTube channel,
• 51:55
  by the time you are watching or listening this,
• 51:58
  those recordings from Linda Claire presenting the outcomes
• 52:02
  of the IDEAL Study will be on our YouTube channel.
• 52:04
  As part of our new push,
• 52:06
  we'd like to help you share your research.
• 52:07
  So if you've done a webinar,
• 52:09
  you're holding an event in the UK,
• 52:11
  talk to us.
• 52:11
  We'd love to share your content on our website
• 52:13
  and get more people watching it.
• 52:15
  Thank you very much, everybody.
• 52:17
  I think it's time for one of these
• 52:19
  and then we are gonna get back
• 52:21
  to the second half of our quiz.
• 52:24
  (Christmas song)
• 52:34
  Just to recap after round one,
• 52:36
  Ajantha, Connor, Clarissa, Anna,
• 52:38
  and Jodi are all on one point each.
• 52:41
  And Hannah, poor Hannah was the only one question
• 52:47
  in round one.
• 52:48
  You need to be quicker, Hannah.
• 52:49
  Okay, are you ready for round two?
• 52:51
  There are no signs elements to these.
• 52:53
  These are purely Christmas questions,
• 52:55
  but there might be a couple of a little bit harder.
• 52:58
  Question number six,
• 53:00
  what are the two most popular names for Santa Claus?
• 53:05
  - Anna.
• 53:06
  - Anna
• 53:07
  - Santa and Father Christmas.
• 53:11
  - Oh-oh, incorrect.
• 53:12
  Anybody else?
• 53:14
  - Connor.
• 53:16
  Chris Cringle.
• 53:19
  - Oh, I thought my cover too.
• 53:25
  - I think you've had too long.
• 53:27
  Sorry.
• 53:28
  - I can give you a German one,
• 53:30
  but that won't count.
• 53:31
  - Go on.
• 53:32
  Clarissa, do you wanna guess two most common names
• 53:35
  for Santa Claus that obviously aren't Santa Claus?
• 53:41
  - Anna.
• 53:42
  Can I have another?
• 53:43
  Anna.
• 53:44
  - Well, Clarissa's got another go.
• 53:45
  Clarissa said-
• 53:46
  - Well, for us is Weihnachtsmann and Christkind,
• 53:49
  which is baby Jesus, basically.
• 53:53
  - One more, though.
• 53:54
  There's one more-
• 53:55
  - Baby Jesus isn't Santa Claus.
• 53:56
  - Yes, he or she or it's our culture.
• 54:00
  - What?
• 54:02
  - So in Germany,
• 54:04
  Santa Claus and baby Jesus are the same person.
• 54:09
  - Well, Santa Clause comes on the 6th of December,
• 54:12
  so your boot will be filled with chocolates and presents
• 54:17
  and then we have little baby Jesus flying as an angel
• 54:21
  through the window giving you the presents
• 54:23
  if you're a little kid.
• 54:25
  - How did I not know that?
• 54:27
  - It depends what part of Germany you're in
• 54:28
  because in East Germany,
• 54:30
  they didn't get the little Jesus,
• 54:32
  baby Jesus coming
• 54:33
  because they were communists
• 54:34
  and they weren't allowed to have religion.
• 54:36
  So they got St. Nicholas
• 54:40
  and so St. Nich and the (indistinct)
• 54:41
  - Oh Saint Nich.
• 54:44
  Yeah.
• 54:45
  Okay, I'm gonna give...
• 54:46
  Do you know what,
• 54:47
  you've all had too many girls,
• 54:48
  I'm gonna give Hannah a go.
• 54:51
  - I thought it would be Father Christmas.
• 54:53
  - Just think of two names for Santa Claus.
• 54:57
  - Not Father Christmas is one of them.
• 54:58
  - Two clues.
• 54:59
  Somebody's already said one of them correctly.
• 55:03
  It wasn't Father Christmas.
• 55:07
  - I don't know.
• 55:08
  I don't.
• 55:09
  - Okay, I'm just gonna say this.
• 55:11
  But the answer that I've got from my book is Chris Cringle,
• 55:16
  which somebody mentioned,
• 55:17
  and Saint Nicholas,
• 55:18
  but nobody mentioned them together.
• 55:20
  Nobody said both together.
• 55:23
  Okay, no points that time around.
• 55:24
  - We forget half a point each.
• 55:26
  Forget them individually.
• 55:27
  - Who got Saint Nicholas?
• 55:30
  - Anna.
• 55:31
  - Okay, so Anna, you get-
• 55:33
  - 6th of December.
• 55:35
  - Ah, you're trying to get half as well
• 55:37
  and Connor as well.
• 55:39
  I feel like I'm getting Connor here.
• 55:41
  Question number seven,
• 55:43
  what well-known Christmas carol became
• 55:44
  the first ever song broadcast in space in 1965?
• 55:52
  Anybody?
• 55:54
  - AJ. - First...
• 55:56
  AJ.
• 55:57
  - It's a complete guess.
• 55:58
  Was it "Silent Night"?
• 55:59
  - No, sorry.
• 56:02
  Carol or Christmas song?
• 56:04
  - Christmas Carol.
• 56:07
  - What's the difference between a carol and a song?
• 56:09
  - Well, a song might be like the pokes song.
• 56:14
  - Okay.
• 56:15
  All right, Anna, "Jingle Bells."
• 56:18
  - Anna, correct.
• 56:19
  "Jingle Bells."
• 56:20
  "Jingle Bells" was the first ever
• 56:25
  Christmas song broadcast in space in 1965.
• 56:29
  Anna, that puts you one point in the lead now
• 56:32
  with two and a half points as we move
• 56:34
  into question number eight,
• 56:37
  which you're all gonna know this.
• 56:38
  Are you ready?
• 56:39
  Which Christmas movie featured a boy
• 56:41
  named Kevin accidentally left behind when he-
• 56:46
  - I was clearly first.
• 56:47
  I was very clearly first.
• 56:49
  It's "Home Alone."
• 56:51
  But I'm taking it
• 56:52
  because I was very clearly first
• 56:54
  and I'm home alone.
• 56:55
  - And I was struggling to read
• 56:57
  and look at you all at the same time.
• 57:00
  My eyes can only be in one place at once.
• 57:02
  Okay, so, ooh.
• 57:04
  So now just to recap on scores.
• 57:06
  Anna's on two and a half.
• 57:07
  Jodi is on two.
• 57:09
  Connor and Clarissa are on one and a half.
• 57:13
  Ajantha's on one
• 57:14
  and Hannah is still up there
• 57:17
  at the bottom of the pack with zero points.
• 57:21
  Okay, are we ready?
• 57:23
  Number nine,
• 57:24
  which country,
• 57:25
  if you're that confident, Hannah,
• 57:28
  I only read the first- - Germany.
• 57:29
  - Germany is correct.
• 57:31
  Well done.
• 57:32
  - What was the question?
• 57:34
  - The question was,
• 57:36
  which country?
• 57:36
  And that's all I said before I stopped.
• 57:38
  Which country started the tradition
• 57:41
  of putting up a Christmas tree
• 57:44
  and it was Germany.
• 57:45
  - Knew it.
• 57:46
  Anna's storming ahead now with three and a half points.
• 57:49
  In fact, with only one question left,
• 57:52
  nobody can beat her.
• 57:54
  So we are just playing for pride now.
• 57:57
  Question number 10,
• 57:59
  in the song, the 12 Days of Christmas,
• 58:02
  which is given on the seventh day?
• 58:09
  - Jodi.
• 58:10
  - Jodi. - Seven swans a swimming.
• 58:11
  - Well done.
• 58:12
  It is seven swans a swimming.
• 58:15
  So that's the end of our Christmas festive quiz.
• 58:20
  This could become a new Christmas tradition
• 58:22
  because I quite enjoyed that.
• 58:25
  So in last place with no points
• 58:29
  because just not quick enough,
• 58:35
  they're gonna be really big.
• 58:36
  Hannah, her saying-
• 58:38
  - I'm okay with that.
• 58:39
  - Okay,
• 58:40
  but you look incredibly festive.
• 58:41
  You've got to go watch the video version
• 58:43
  of this podcast on our YouTube channel.
• 58:45
  See Hannah's amazing Christmas jumper.
• 58:46
  Show your Christmas jumper, Hannah.
• 58:48
  - It's got like a dog on it.
• 58:50
  - Oh wow.
• 58:51
  - Pretty cute.
• 58:52
  - I think Connor's got one of those dogs.
• 58:54
  You got one of those dogs, Connor?
• 58:56
  - Not quite those dogs.
• 58:58
  - Not quite French.
• 58:59
  Yeah.
• 59:00
  - Okay, so Hannah came last with zero points.
• 59:03
  Next behind is Ajantha with one point,
• 59:05
  but it was very impressive one point
• 59:09
  'cause he got the hard one.
• 59:10
  Well done.
• 59:11
  Next is Connor and Clarissa sharing equal third place
• 59:19
  with one and a half points.
• 59:21
  Then Kim, Jodi,
• 59:22
  you came in very late with the last...
• 59:24
  All your points, Kim,
• 59:25
  the last minute there,
• 59:27
  Jodi on three.
• 59:27
  But the winner of our Christmas quiz is Dr. Anna Volkmer.
• 59:33
  Well done, Anna.
• 59:34
  You win a dementia research mug.
• 59:38
  You've already got one of these.
• 59:40
  - She should have points deducted
• 59:41
  for dressing for Halloween.
• 59:49
  - Yeah, we ought to just address that, didn't we?
• 59:53
  Just because I know we talked about it
• 59:54
  before we started recording,
• 59:55
  but anybody who's watching will be looking and going,
• 59:58
  "Why is Anna wearing a bat on her head?"
• 1:00:03
  Is this another German tradition,
• 1:00:05
  bats related to Christmas in Germany?
• 1:00:08
  - No, this is just me challenging everyone's thinking
• 1:00:12
  as all research.
• 1:00:14
  You know being a good research.
• 1:00:15
  - It's not, is it?
• 1:00:16
  That was just still there from your kids,
• 1:00:18
  haven't put it away for Halloween.
• 1:00:22
  - Thank you very much.
• 1:00:23
  Well, that was lots of fun,
• 1:00:25
  but it's time that we got on
• 1:00:26
  and got to the last part of the show.
• 1:00:30
  (Christmas song)
• 1:00:40
  So we're running over time.
• 1:00:41
  We're gonna keep this nice and quick.
• 1:00:43
  What I'm gonna do
• 1:00:44
  in this last segment is ask everybody a really simple one,
• 1:00:47
  which is what are they most excited about
• 1:00:49
  for the coming year ahead,
• 1:00:51
  which is of course 2024.
• 1:00:53
  You can pick on a personal one, professional one,
• 1:00:55
  whichever you prefer.
• 1:00:57
  And I'm going to go to Hannah first.
• 1:00:59
  Hannah, what are you most looking forward to?
• 1:01:03
  More holidays?
• 1:01:03
  - No, no, no, not yet.
• 1:01:06
  Submitting my PhD.
• 1:01:08
  - Is that coming this year?
• 1:01:09
  - It's coming April 2024.
• 1:01:11
  - Are you not jinxing that by saying right now,
• 1:01:13
  you're definitely gonna do that?
• 1:01:15
  - No, I'm confident.
• 1:01:16
  I'm looking forward to it.
• 1:01:18
  I'm just like going at it with a positive mindset
• 1:01:22
  and manifesting that I get it submitted.
• 1:01:25
  So yeah, that and then Viva.
• 1:01:29
  - And then holidays, I hope,
• 1:01:31
  celebrate. - Exactly, and then holidays.
• 1:01:33
  Yeah.
• 1:01:33
  - We should say,
• 1:01:34
  is this a busy time of year for you?
• 1:01:35
  'Cause you are also a jobing pharmacist, right?
• 1:01:38
  I mean, you work in a pharmacy
• 1:01:40
  and dispense medication to people.
• 1:01:44
  - Yeah, I was locuming quite a bit,
• 1:01:46
  but now I've eased off a little bit just
• 1:01:47
  'cause I wanna get my PhD submitted in time.
• 1:01:51
  So I'm more focusing on this aspect
• 1:01:53
  before going back into community pharmacy.
• 1:01:55
  But it's been a bit tough.
• 1:01:56
  I mean there's been a lot of closures
• 1:01:58
  of community pharmacies,
• 1:01:59
  so workload and demand has increased on the others,
• 1:02:03
  but yeah.
• 1:02:04
  - And shortage of medication as well, right?
• 1:02:06
  I mean, you must have to deal with a lot
• 1:02:07
  of people are a bit frustrated
• 1:02:08
  'cause I know I've stood in the queue
• 1:02:09
  and heard people talking here we haven't got that.
• 1:02:13
  - Yeah, there's a lot of shortages
• 1:02:14
  that's been ongoing for a long time,
• 1:02:17
  trying to find alternatives.
• 1:02:19
  People do get angry,
• 1:02:20
  but just people, guys,
• 1:02:21
  it's not our fault.
• 1:02:22
  We're trying our best.
• 1:02:24
  - I understand.
• 1:02:25
  Well, thank you for all you do, Hannah,
• 1:02:26
  and really good luck with that writing.
• 1:02:28
  We are looking forward to reading some more of your blogs
• 1:02:30
  to hear how you get along with that.
• 1:02:32
  Clarissa, what I come to you next?
• 1:02:36
  - Oh, so much going on.
• 1:02:39
  I'm very excited to go back to Columbia in January,
• 1:02:41
  especially when it's absolutely ice cold here and windy
• 1:02:45
  and I'm looking forward to having some nice sunshine there.
• 1:02:48
  And just finishing up our ESRC study
• 1:02:52
  to look at mental health of older adults
• 1:02:54
  and people with dementia.
• 1:02:55
  So that's been three years in the making
• 1:02:57
  and I think we're all really excited
• 1:02:59
  to kind of celebrate having done something,
• 1:03:02
  having done a pilot intervention
• 1:03:04
  in a really hard to reach rural area of Columbia
• 1:03:10
  where often our collaborators weren't allowed to go
• 1:03:13
  because of flaring up gang violence.
• 1:03:16
  So it's completely new learning for us,
• 1:03:19
  but we are really happy
• 1:03:20
  that we've completed it to best of our abilities
• 1:03:23
  and I got to travel again,
• 1:03:24
  so I'm excited.
• 1:03:26
  - Brilliant.
• 1:03:27
  And learning that we can employ
• 1:03:30
  in the rural parts of Scotland as well possibly-
• 1:03:33
  - Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:03:34
  - Which leads me nicely to Jodi.
• 1:03:36
  What do you-
• 1:03:36
  - Yeah, I mean I hope that there is both easier access
• 1:03:40
  and less gang violence than rural Columbia.
• 1:03:43
  - I don't know, I hear those.
• 1:03:45
  They've reintroduced wolves into Scotland, haven't there?
• 1:03:47
  Isn't that a thing?
• 1:03:48
  - Wolves?
• 1:03:49
  - Wolves, yeah.
• 1:03:50
  - Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's wolves, I think.
• 1:03:53
  Yeah.
• 1:03:55
  So I'm gonna go for a personal one.
• 1:03:57
  I'm getting civilly partnered in May,
• 1:04:01
  so that's exciting.
• 1:04:03
  I have to make a wedding dress during the week
• 1:04:07
  between Christmas and New Year,
• 1:04:08
  so that'll be fun.
• 1:04:11
  - Wait, that's a really bad time.
• 1:04:12
  Is that post or pre-mince pies?
• 1:04:16
  - Well, I'm not a mince pie kind of person.
• 1:04:20
  - I know.
• 1:04:21
  - It's mainly chocolate,
• 1:04:23
  that will be my downfall.
• 1:04:24
  My Yule Log is legendary.
• 1:04:28
  - Maybe eat all that before the dress.
• 1:04:31
  - Yeah, I know.
• 1:04:32
  - That's really good.
• 1:04:33
  Congratulations.
• 1:04:34
  Are we gonna learn more about that in your blog?
• 1:04:36
  Is that something you'll talk about in your blog?
• 1:04:38
  - I don't know,
• 1:04:39
  maybe there's a way to talk
• 1:04:40
  about how making a dress taught me about first year-
• 1:04:44
  - Well, they did it.
• 1:04:45
  Rebecca Williams talked about the seamstress
• 1:04:49
  in one of her blogs.
• 1:04:50
  - I really liked that
• 1:04:51
  and it completely stolen idea I had so that's good.
• 1:04:56
  - We should give a shout out to all of our bloggers who,
• 1:04:58
  of course, couldn't be here today.
• 1:04:59
  Sam Oxon was supposed to be,
• 1:05:00
  but he had an urgent dental appointment involved.
• 1:05:03
  Couch, (indistinct), Alley.
• 1:05:06
  Who else am I missing?
• 1:05:07
  Gaia Brazo.
• 1:05:08
  We've got a brand new Emily Spencer as well
• 1:05:11
  who's just joined us who was also gonna be here,
• 1:05:13
  but she literally just had a baby a few days ago.
• 1:05:16
  But she's gonna write for us
• 1:05:17
  throughout her maternity journey
• 1:05:20
  to talk about the time
• 1:05:21
  before what it's like being on maternity leave
• 1:05:22
  and then coming back to work afterwards.
• 1:05:25
  So we're really excited to have those new blogs.
• 1:05:27
  Connor.
• 1:05:30
  - Well, I think this year is really exciting
• 1:05:33
  because I know I'm fully funded this year
• 1:05:35
  so I know I've got it's-
• 1:05:38
  - So the most exciting part is not having to apply.
• 1:05:40
  - Yeah, I've got like finally got like a long stretch
• 1:05:44
  of funding where I'm kind of like,
• 1:05:45
  "Oh, I don't have to worry about that."
• 1:05:47
  - Do you need money to do stuff?
• 1:05:49
  'Cause I know that often,
• 1:05:50
  we've had blogs this year talking about fellowships,
• 1:05:52
  how you get your fellowship
• 1:05:54
  and then you think,
• 1:05:55
  "Great, I don't have to do anything."
• 1:05:56
  And then you realise
• 1:05:56
  you haven't actually gotten enough money to do things
• 1:06:00
  so you still need to apply for more money.
• 1:06:02
  But is it a bit different with you
• 1:06:03
  because it's data?
• 1:06:05
  - So I don't really need costs to kind
• 1:06:08
  of do data analysis.
• 1:06:11
  So yeah, I am quite lucky in that.
• 1:06:12
  So I think the reason I've got quite a nice bit
• 1:06:14
  of money is because I only need to fund my salary.
• 1:06:18
  So as long as I've got my laptop and my data,
• 1:06:20
  I can do what I want.
• 1:06:22
  But yeah, so the other half
• 1:06:24
  of my work apart from fellowship is working with...
• 1:06:26
  I do neuropathology data analysis
• 1:06:28
  with Steve Wharton in Sheffield.
• 1:06:33
  He does the brain stuff
• 1:06:35
  so I don't need to worry about getting money
• 1:06:38
  for those costs.
• 1:06:39
  Someone else deals with that.
• 1:06:40
  So yeah, it should be nice not having
• 1:06:41
  to worry about projects and stuff and-
• 1:06:45
  - Conferences.
• 1:06:45
  Will we be seeing you at AIC?
• 1:06:47
  - Hopefully, yeah.
• 1:06:49
  I'm looking forward to have that mythical thing
• 1:06:51
  that senior people talk about is having space
• 1:06:54
  to think about where you're going.
• 1:06:57
  I've never really had that.
• 1:07:00
  - Gets me your own PhD shoots now as well.
• 1:07:03
  Thank you very much, Connor.
• 1:07:05
  Haven't I gone to yet, Ajantha?
• 1:07:07
  I haven't spoken.
• 1:07:08
  I haven't asked you that question.
• 1:07:09
  How about you?
• 1:07:10
  - Mine is gonna be quite quick
• 1:07:11
  because we exactly the same as Hannah.
• 1:07:14
  I'm also planning to submit my PhD thesis next year also,
• 1:07:17
  hopefully in April.
• 1:07:19
  I'm really going for April
• 1:07:20
  because that way,
• 1:07:21
  it'll be before my birthday
• 1:07:22
  so it'll be quite nice.
• 1:07:24
  But yes, I'm looking forward to submitting that,
• 1:07:27
  all done and then taking a bit of a break.
• 1:07:30
  - Brilliant.
• 1:07:31
  Well, good also, good look.
• 1:07:32
  And if any of our listeners have any top tips
• 1:07:35
  or are about to submit their PhD themselves,
• 1:07:38
  we've got lots of blogs and podcasts
• 1:07:39
  and other things talking about PhD writing.
• 1:07:43
  So do have a look at those.
• 1:07:44
  And if you've got any top tips,
• 1:07:45
  post them in the comments
• 1:07:46
  'cause I'm sure Hannah and Ajantha would love
• 1:07:49
  to hear those.
• 1:07:50
  And then last but not least, our quiz winner,
• 1:07:53
  who I know has got a busy year in 2024.
• 1:07:57
  Hannah, what are you most looking forward to?
• 1:08:00
  - Oh, lots.
• 1:08:01
  But I am going to Australia
• 1:08:03
  for the International Aphasia Rehab Conference,
• 1:08:06
  which I've been invited to as an invited speaker.
• 1:08:10
  Not quite a keynote,
• 1:08:11
  but an invited speaker,
• 1:08:12
  so that's pretty awesome.
• 1:08:13
  And that's in Brisbane in Queensland,
• 1:08:16
  so that's pretty awesome.
• 1:08:18
  And while we are on the theme you were talking
• 1:08:20
  about people going on maternity leave
• 1:08:22
  and still doing research,
• 1:08:23
  I'm quite looking forward to my...
• 1:08:26
  The last,
• 1:08:27
  I've got two kids,
• 1:08:27
  the last one starting secondary school in September,
• 1:08:30
  which makes them more independent.
• 1:08:31
  So I never then have to...
• 1:08:33
  Currently, I organise all my meetings around having
• 1:08:36
  to pick him up quite often.
• 1:08:38
  So once he's at secondary school, I don't,
• 1:08:39
  I can just work and he can come home.
• 1:08:43
  - No, you're not supposed to say just work.
• 1:08:45
  You're supposed to say I can go for a run when I like.
• 1:08:48
  - No, no.
• 1:08:49
  Well, no, I can do that also.
• 1:08:50
  But what I don't have to do is have conversations
• 1:08:53
  with other parents at the school gates,
• 1:08:54
  which is always painful and annoying.
• 1:08:58
  So I get to actually do this.
• 1:09:00
  - This is adding into that claim you made on your bio,
• 1:09:04
  which is you are the scariest speech
• 1:09:06
  and language therapist,
• 1:09:08
  which I've never believed from knowing you.
• 1:09:09
  I would never believe that.
• 1:09:11
  But maybe there's a side of you I've never seen
• 1:09:14
  and you're just nice to me.
• 1:09:17
  - Maybe exactly that, maybe.
• 1:09:20
  - Wonderful, thank you very much.
• 1:09:22
  - Thank you.
• 1:09:23
  - Thank you very much, Anna.
• 1:09:24
  I should add to our own,
• 1:09:25
  so from from a dementia research perspective,
• 1:09:28
  we've got a new community space coming.
• 1:09:31
  We're changing the way some of the website works
• 1:09:32
  so you won't need to log in anymore.
• 1:09:34
  We're gonna have our app is gonna come along as well.
• 1:09:36
  We've got some exciting new podcast series built into that.
• 1:09:41
  And I'm excited
• 1:09:42
  to also be getting out some conferences next year.
• 1:09:45
  I missed quite a few this year,
• 1:09:46
  but I'm going to...
• 1:09:47
  Definitely, you'll be able to see me if you want to come
• 1:09:49
  and talk to us about being on the show
• 1:09:50
  and things at ADPD and some of the AAIC events as well
• 1:09:56
  and Alzheimer Europe again,
• 1:09:57
  Alzheimer's Disease International,
• 1:09:59
  we've got that conference this year as well.
• 1:10:01
  And some of the working with our brilliant charities,
• 1:10:03
  of course, risk against dementia have got
• 1:10:05
  a new funding call open at the moment.
• 1:10:06
  We're doing a live stream with them shortly.
• 1:10:09
  You've got the ECR retreat from Alzheimer's Society,
• 1:10:11
  which is advertised right now,
• 1:10:12
  running again in June, I think.
• 1:10:15
  We've got the AIU Care Conference in March as well.
• 1:10:18
  So lots going on this year,
• 1:10:20
  but I think it's time we got round
• 1:10:23
  to the last bit of the show.
• 1:10:26
  (Christmas song)
• 1:10:35
  Well, the last bit
• 1:10:36
  of the show is essentially me just thanking everybody
• 1:10:39
  because we run way over time as everything we do.
• 1:10:42
  But I'm gonna allow for it
• 1:10:43
  'cause it's a Christmas special.
• 1:10:44
  All that is remains is for me
• 1:10:46
  to wish all of you a brilliant festive season.
• 1:10:50
  And to thank my incredible guests:
• 1:10:53
  Clarissa, Hannah, Anna, Connor, Ajantha, and Jodi.
• 1:10:59
  And of course, you'll find all their blogs
• 1:11:03
  on our website
• 1:11:04
  and that of our other blogs as well.
• 1:11:07
  They write for us
• 1:11:08
  on the Dementia Researcher website every month.
• 1:11:10
  You can also hear them reading their blogs
• 1:11:12
  in your favourite podcast app and on YouTube
• 1:11:14
  'cause they all do these wonderful narration,
• 1:11:17
  which I really enjoy.
• 1:11:18
  I love hearing people read their blog.
• 1:11:20
  It kind of really brings them to life.
• 1:11:22
  So if you're not already a listener,
• 1:11:23
  go look for Dementia Researcher,
• 1:11:25
  the blogs in your favourite podcast app.
• 1:11:28
  And of course, we also curate playlists
• 1:11:30
  for each individual as well.
• 1:11:32
  So if somebody's work really resonates with you,
• 1:11:35
  if they work in the same field
• 1:11:37
  or you really enjoy what they write,
• 1:11:39
  you'll find those curated individualised playlists
• 1:11:44
  in Pop Chaser and on YouTube as well.
• 1:11:47
  Thank you so much, all of you,
• 1:11:48
  for all the contributions you make to our website
• 1:11:51
  and for joining us today.
• 1:11:53
  And thank you very much.
• 1:11:56
  I'm Adam Smith and you've been listening
• 1:11:58
  to the Dementia Researcher Podcast.
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  Happy holidays, everybody.
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  - Thanks.
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  - Bye.
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  - Bye.
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  - [Narrator] The Dementia Researcher Podcast was brought
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  to you by University College London
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  with generous funding from the UK National Institute
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  for Health Research, Alzheimer's Research UK,
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  Alzheimer's Society, Alzheimer's Association,
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  and Race Against Dementia.
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  Please subscribe,
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  to all our great resources,
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