September 2016 Man of the Month: George Vradenburg

Chairman and Founding Board Member, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s
Compared to other illnesses, Alzheimer’s disease is a particularly vicious and relentless enemy.  For more than five million Alzheimer’s sufferers and the millions more who provide care for them, the disease is an experience in daily heartbreak and gradual, painful loss. To combat such a foe, our Disruptive Women in Health Care Man of the Month, George Vradenburg, embarked on a form of medical guerilla warfare – and he’s getting results.
Vradenburg and his wife Trish are co-founders of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, a group that has broken with conventional health advocacy traditions, applying heightened pressure on political and business leaders to provide more resources for Alzheimer’s research, development of new therapies, and support for caregivers.
It’s a personal mission.  He watched his mother-in-law become a victim of the disease, slowly losing her sense of self in the Alzheimer’s spiral that has afflicted so many, eventually losing the ability to recognize family members and requiring round-the-clock care.  The experience helped harden his belief, as he wrote on the UsAgainstAlzheimer’s website, that a disease so cruel deserves a “brutal response.”
For years, the Vradenburgs co-chaired the National Alzheimer’s Gala, a black-tie event that raised significant dollars for research.  They decided, though, as Vradenburg told the Washington Post, that hosting a gala dinner simply wasn’t enough...

Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 23, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Alzheimer’s Disease Man of the Month Source Type: blogs