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November 19, 2024

A crowd of 150 people—representing academia, research, medical and patient organizations, government, industry, advocacy, and more—gathered for the AAN’s third annual Brain Health Summit early this fall in Washington, DC.

Themed “Brain Health in Action,” the summit’s mission was to empower stakeholders to showcase advancements, make connections, share ideas, and take action on the top priorities toward advancing brain health for all—part of the AAN’s dual mission and its Brain Health Initiative.

Read speaker summaries, new insights, and takeaways now in the 2024 Brain Health Proceedings Summary.  

“Your brain controls every aspect of your life, so it’s important to keep it as healthy as possible,” said AAN President Carlayne E. Jackson, MD, FAAN. “The AAN, which has promoted brain health for decades through its advocacy and public outreach, is proud to stand united with a coalition of multidisciplinary stakeholders as we pursue a plan to improve brain health across each stage of your life.”

Brain health is defined by the AAN as “a continuous state of attaining and maintaining the optimal neurologic function that best supports one’s physical, mental, and social well-being through every stage of life.” This definition doesn’t just call for brain disease to be diagnosed and treated—it calls for a comprehensive, effective, and enduring for prevention.

Speakers at the summit were organized around the four pillars of the AAN’s Brain Health Initiative: Science, patient care, public policy, and public education. Speaking in the area of public education was Olajide Williams, MD, MS, who co-founded health literacy organization Hip Hop Public Health. He shared information on the organization’s .

“In general, public health struggles to reach adults in impoverished communities because there’s no organized place to find them. They’re working one, two, three jobs a day, struggling to put food on the table, and health is a very low priority,” Williams said. “Children can actually disrupt those barriers. They can create a channel for bringing health literacy into the homes of adults in these communities that are so difficult for traditional public health arms to reach.”

The intervention uses hip hop to make learning fun and immersive for children, who are then encouraged to discuss the signs of stroke, and when to call 911, with their parents and grandparents. Williams’ intergenerational approach has been implemented in more than 20 US cities and even replicated abroad.

“We focus so much in neurology on the ‘repair work’ and less on the ‘building work,’” Williams said. “That work needs to begin early in life, creating the resilience and the skills that can shift trajectories to healthy, thriving adulthood.”

Also speaking at the summit was Sarah Lenz Lock, JD, AARP’s senior vice president for policy and brain health. She joined forces with the AAN and other organizations to create the , an initiative to promote brain-healthy lifestyles, reduce the stigma associated with cognitive decline and dementia, and create a hopeful narrative around brain health.

“It was inspiring to think about the breadth and the depth of the people that the AAN is trying to serve—the broad swath of ages and situations,” Lock said. “That kind of rich, deep reach is needed to spur better brain health, which is an incredibly important issue for people’s quality of life. Brain health can affect how one lives their lives—their health, their wealth, and their social interactions.”

The collaborative aims to provide brain health resources, engage communities struggling against inequities and facing disproportionate rates of dementia, and partner with a wide array of organizations and businesses to find solutions.

“Nobody can solve these hairy problems by themselves, right?” Lock said. “The health care system can't do it. The individual health care practitioner can't. But if we work in communities where people work, play, and live, and provide the opportunities for healthier lifestyle behaviors to support better health across the lifespan, then we're far more likely to be successful.”

Other speakers at the summit included US Representative Jennifer Wexton, JD, who shared her personal journey with progressive supranuclear palsy. She used AI technology and examples of her voice from past public speaking to deliver her written remarks in her “own voice.” Fellow speaker Ted Thompson, JD, shared an advocacy case study on the recently passed National Plan to End Parkinson’s Act, and Laura Baker, PhD, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, presented on the large-scale preventative study U.S. POINTER. Read short summaries of all nine presentations and other important information in the 2024 Brain Health Proceedings Summary.