Jason Karlawish, M.D., researches and writes about issues at the intersections of bioethics, aging, and the neurosciences. He is the author of The Problem of Alzheimer’s: How Science, Culture, and Politics Turned a Rare Disease into a Crisis and What We Can Do About It. He is a Professor of Medicine, Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and Co-Director of the Penn Memory Center, where he cares for patients. Some of Dr. Karlawish’s early work demonstrated that non psychiatrist physicians could assess decision making capacity in older adults as well as psychiatrists in many or most cases; IDA was created to extend this work to adult protective service professionals and other non-physicians who work with older people.

Mark Lachs, M.D., MPH, is the Irene and Roy Psaty Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, Chief of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, and the Director of Geriatrics for the NewYork-Presbyterian Health Care System.  Both a practicing geriatrician and a physician scientist, Dr. Lachs has devoted his career to protecting the rights and dignity of older adults with a special focus on victims of elder abuse.  IDA was developed by faculty members in his program based on years of experience with elder abuse cases after recognizing that adult protective workers can and should have a greater role in the assessment of decision making capacity in older adults.