News Briefs

PET scans detect early Alzheimer’s

UCLA research shows that positron emission tomography scans of
the brain can accurately detect early Alzheimer’s disease up
to 95 percent of the time, leading to prompt medical treatment.

PET scans are also sensitive enough to predict whether people
experiencing age-related memory problems will develop dementia in
the future, as reported in the Nov. 7 edition of the Journal of the
American Medical Association.

“We found that PET opens a window into the living brain
with a degree of accuracy matched only by autopsy,” said Dan
Silverman, principal investigator and assistant professor of
pharmacology.

Nobel laureate in new journal issue

The work that won Kenneth Arrow a Nobel Memorial Prize in
Economic Sciences almost 30 years ago, will be featured in a
journal this month.

The Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, edited by UCLA
policy studies professor Mark Peterson, has dedicated an entire
issue to an evaluation of Arrow’s 1963 article,
“Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical
Care.”

“What’s truly remarkable about this is that the
economics of health care has radically changed in 40 years,”
Peterson said in a statement.

Since the article was written, there has been a predominance of
insurance issues, new technologies, changing roles of providers,
specialization and a change in management from physicians and
nonprofit hospitals to HMOs and insurance companies, Peterson
said.

The special issue brings together more than 30 prominent
scholars in related fields, including Arrow, to examine the issues
of health economics, competition, insurance, information and
markets from the perspective of the 1963 article.

New faculty member at UCLA

Jerry Katzman, a veteran of the William Morris Agency, has
joined the faculty at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and
Television as a member of the Producers Program and as the
school’s liaison with the entertainment industry.

Katzman’s primary responsibility will be to develop
strategies to transition students from the university to the
professional world. He will also play a role in developing
strategic partnerships between the school and all facets of the
media industry.

“Jerry is a universally respected leader whose vast
experience and wealth of knowledge will help our students become
successful media professionals,” said Robert Rosen, dean of
the school, in a statement.

Reports from Daily Bruin wire services.