Alzheimer’s Disease, Decisions, and Decision Makers by Emily Largent, PhD, JD, RN

Sheila Hutzler-Rives Memorial Lecture
Alzheimer's Disease, Decisions, and Decision Makers

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progressively erodes affected individuals’ decisional capacity. At the same time, people living with dementia (PLWD) caused by AD confront numerous decisions that affect their well-being and the well-being of their family members. Research demonstrates the importance of family involvement in decision making, yet there is limited knowledge of how PLWD and their families work together to make decisions or of how the approaches to decision making change as AD progresses. This talk will include a presentation of data from a qualitative study of patient-caregiver dyads that focused on decision making, and it will address the normative implications of these findings.

Emily Largent is the Emanuel and Robert Hart Associate Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy and Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a secondary appointment at Penn Law, is a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and is affiliated with the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics.

Dr. Largent’s work focuses on the social, legal, ethical, and clinical considerations arising from our evolving understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s disease. Her work is supported by grant awards from the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Largent is a member of the Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program Class of 2023. She was the 2023 recipient of the Baruch A. Brody Award & Lecture in Bioethics and is an elected fellow of the Hastings Center. Her work has been published in leading bioethics and biomedical journals, including The Hastings Center Report, American Journal of Bioethics, New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA. She co-authored Clinical Research Ethics Consultation: A Casebook (Oxford University Press).

Dr. Largent studied Science, Technology, and International Affairs as an undergraduate at Georgetown University and earned a second degree in nursing from Penn Nursing. She received her PhD in Health Policy, with a concentration in ethics, from Harvard University and her JD from Harvard Law School. Dr. Largent was previously a fellow in the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health and clerked for Chief Judge Jeffrey Howard of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.