This week the annual 2015 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference took place in Washington, DC. The conference is an opportunity for dementia researchers from around the world to come together and share their study results around the prevention and treatment strategies for Alzheimer’s and other dementias. The presentations demonstrated a diversity of treatment-related findings which is good news for patients and should be noted by those in the pharma sales field as it means the expansion of options for treatment.

Results from more than a dozen experimental drug studies at AAIC show the research community attacking Alzheimer’s disease from multiple angles, targeting the underlying causes and some of the most pernicious symptoms. Data from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly suggests its solanezumab drug can cut the rate of the dementia’s progression by about a third. A new trial is due to report next year and should provide definitive evidence. The death of brain cells in Alzheimer’s is currently unstoppable. Solanezumab may be able to keep them alive.

Advances such as theses show a clear maturation of the Alzheimer’s research field, a recognition of the need for a broader attack, and hint at future possibilities for combination therapy. New reports included advanced trials and new analyses in three drugs targeting the abnormal amyloid protein that forms plaques in the brain (one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s), plus three drug trials that target other pathways and symptoms in the disease, including psychiatric symptoms such as agitation.

This is good news as projections reported by The Lewin Group for the Alzheimer’s Association show that 28 million American baby boomers will get Alzheimer’s by midcentury — which will consume nearly 25 percent of Medicare spending in 2040 — unless there are significant advances in treatment and prevention. A study by the same group released earlier this year suggested that a treatment that delays the onset of Alzheimer’s by five years could save $220 billion within the first few years of its introduction.

Also concerning was the information that women are at the epicenter of Alzheimer’s disease. According to Alzheimer’s Association 2015 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures, almost two-thirds of American seniors living with Alzheimer’s disease are women.

On the more promising side, studies indicated that brain scans, memory tests and body fluids may hold the keys to understanding a person’s likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s, even among those who don’t have memory and thinking problems associated with the disease. A highlight from the conference was a study that suggests it could someday be possible to detect Alzheimer’s-like changes in saliva, which is simple to obtain, easily transportable and has been successfully used in diagnosing a variety of diseases and conditions. Another study suggests positron emission tomography (PET) scans of brain inflammation could one day be used to detect the disease and track the impact of treatment.

Worldwide, around 36 million people are living with Alzheimer’s disease – a condition that accounts for around 60-80% of dementia cases. In the US alone, around 5.3 million people are living with the disease – of whom 5.1 million are aged 65 and older. Over the next 10 years, the number of seniors with the condition is expected to rise to 7.1 million. By 2050, around 13.8 million older adults will be living with Alzheimer’s. This year, it is estimated that around 700,000 people in the US aged 65 and older will die from Alzheimer’s, making it the 6th leading cause of death in the country – the only cause of death in the top 10 for which their is no way to prevent, slow or cure it.

The wrongful death attorney is a legal practitioner who represents both the deceased and the family in a situation where death was the result of acts of another. Under common law, neither a person who was killed as the result of another’s actions- called a tort- nor his or her relatives could bring a suit to recover damages resulting from the demise. Ironically, since the only kind of action that could be brought was for injury to a person or their property, it was actually more economical to have a person die than to just be injured.

It was the Fatal Accidents Act of 1846, known as Lord Campbell’s Act, that permitted relatives of those killed as the result of the wrongdoing of others, to maintain an action at law. This concept spread from England to the U.S. where statutory changes in state law allowed suits to be filed both on behalf of the person who died as well as the beneficiaries of his or her estate. Each state has its own legal requirements concerning this cause of action that a wrongful death attorney has to meet in order to successfully prosecute the claim. Additionally, this is the only type of suit where a corporation could be found civilly liable for damages resulting from death.

What Are The Elements Of A Wrongful Death Case

The burden of proof that a wrongful death attorney has to meet is known as a “mere preponderance of the evidence.” This is far less strict than other legal burdens such as “clear and convincing” and “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The elements that have to be established are as follows:

Duty

Duty can be defined as the obligation to act with due care to keep another party safe from harm under the circumstances. In order for a claim to succeed, the duty that was owed needs to be established.

Breach of Duty

Once the obligation has been proven, the next step is to show that the wrongdoer failed to act in such a fashion as to prevent the incident leading to the demise of the victim. This breach does not have to be the result of an affirmative act; failing to act can also meet the test for breach of duty.

Causation

The major element of any injury case is causation. The legal practitioner has to demonstrate that the breach of duty was either the direct or proximate cause of the chain of events resulting in the passing of the victim. An important element of causation is foreseeability; the ability to reasonably foresee that acting (or failing to act) in a certain way could result in harm to another.

Damages

After establishing legal responsibility, the wrongful death attorney has the obligation to set out the damages that resulted from the event. These can range from monetary loss (both to the decedent and his/her family, pain and suffering, loss of services, consortium, as well as past, present and future earnings. State statutes often put limits of the amount that can be recovered that a skilled lawyer must take into consideration.

Today’s wrongful death attorney has a far more complex task than those practitioners of an earlier time. While the substantive facts of each case may differ, the ultimate goal is the same: to obtain justice for those who have suffered the loss of a loved through the acts of another.

Would you invest nearly 2 hours to watch a movie watching one character, stranded in the ocean, with less than two dozen words of total dialogue?

I thought it was a ridiculous premise, but against my better judgment, I watched the movie ‘All is Lost,’ starring Robert Redford.

Wow! NOT watching this film would have been a huge mistake.

This is a powerful experience that should be studied by anyone who gives presentations. While it is a testament to the power of resilience and persistence, it is also a textbook example of how non-verbal communication can convey a range of emotions and tell a story. It supports the concept that in speaking, ‘less is more.’

The importance of non-verbals was reiterated to me recently by World Champion speaker Darren LaCroix. He taught me that most speakers spend far too much time worrying about ‘body language’ and gestures. To Darren’s point, your body will naturally gesture when you are telling your story authentically.

He also reminded me that most people ignore their most important visual tool – the face. It can convey emotions and insight into characters and situations that words cannot. Most speakers ignore this. Why use a string of sentences to tell an audience you’re happy, sad, or angry, when you can express those emotions with your face?

An additional benefit to using your face is that it helps create a ‘you-are-there’ feeling for your audience. It’s as if they are in your scenes, that they are part of your story.

That is the power that Robert Redford brings to ‘All is Lost’. The story is of a nameless man, trapped at sea. He faces one challenge after another and needs every bit of ingenuity he can muster to survive. In every situation, he expresses his emotions through his face – concern, frustration, fear, anger, exasperation, helplessness, and hope, among many others.

Additionally, you are able to discern the type of man he is through his resourcefulness. He makes the situation seem plausible, and you are with him emotionally from start to finish.

I encourage you to study this film. Watch each scene for shifts in his expressions that tell you what he is feeling in that moment. Then, go back to a story you are working on. Look for either dialogue or scene descriptions that can be substituted with facial emotions. It takes practice, but you will begin to connect with your audience on a deeper level because rather than being talked at, they’ll feel you’re with them, taking them along on your journey.

John, Paul, George, and Ringo. The Beatles. Four names as familiar to a generation of fans as any on the planet. But there was a time when it wasn’t John, Paul, George, and Ringo. It was John, Paul, George, and Pete.

Pete Best. The Beatles’ original drummer. The one they fired and replaced with Ringo Starr just when they were on the brink of stardom.

So why did poor Pete get fired? (And, by the way, don’t feel too sorry for Pete. I know Pete, and he’s actually quite happy with his life.)

There are many explanations for why the Beatles replaced Pete Best with Ringo Starr, and most of them probably had some bearing on the decision. But as a Beatles expert and lifelong drummer, I find the most compelling reason to be this:

The Beatles were hiring based on where they wanted to be, not on where they were.
Pete was a good, solid drummer whose booming bass drum drew the crowds into those seedy Hamburg clubs where the band learned its craft. His drumming was perfectly fine for the basic rock and roll they were playing during those formative years. But, fine though it was, Pete’s drumming was limited. There wasn’t a lot of versatility, and there was no indication that he was going to become a more versatile drummer.

Many other bands would have stuck it out. But the other three Beatles (especially Paul, who was always the best musician in the band) had their sights set on the future. And to get to that future, they needed a drummer who could keep up with the music they were going to be making, not just the music they were currently making.

In other words, the Beatles made a decision to hire for the future, not for the present. And that decision paid off handsomely.

So let’s apply this to your business. As a leader, are you making decisions (hiring, equipment purchases, marketing, etc.) based on where you are today, or on where you want to be tomorrow? I would suggest that if you’re making your decisions based on where you are today, you’re already behind the curve. You need to make your decisions based on where you want to be, not on where you are. And to do this, you need three things:

You need a clear vision of where you want to be.
You need a clear idea of what it’s going to take (personnel, equipment, etc.) for you to get there.
You need the courage to commit your money, time, and energy to those people and things that will get you to where you want to be even when the uncertainty of it all seems scary.
Some leaders might say, “I’ll hire better [read: more expensive] people when my business progresses.” That’s the safe move, and it seems logical. But the fact is that your business won’t progress (at least, not at a decent pace) until you do hire better people.

The Beatles could have said, “We’ll stick with Pete until we become superstars; then we’ll hire somebody better.” But it was by hiring somebody better – Ringo Starr – that the Beatles became THE BEATLES, and achieved the future they’d been dreaming of.