PROFESSOR KATHERINE C. PEARSON CO-AUTHORS MONTREAL GAZETTE OP-ED
June 2025—While coming to the close of her time as the 2024-25 Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics, Professor Katherine C. Pearson collaborated with Dr. Andrew Frank at Bruyère Health Research Institute in Ottawa to write in support of Canada’s important research work on Alzheimer’s disease, including development of treatments for the disease. The Montreal Gazette published their op-ed on June 26.
Canada has a unique opportunity to establish patient registries to collect data that will help to identify both benefits and potential side effects from new medications. These medications target amyloid plaques and tau tangles associated with loss of cognitive function as Alzheimer’s progresses.
Clear information and written advisories must accompany use of such drugs for research and therapy, a clearance process that requires unique sensitivity as it asks patients who may already be experiencing cognitive impairment to give their consent for new medications. Pearson and Frank urge Canada to move forward boldly and with appropriate safeguards.
Pearson also penned an Elder Law Prof Blog piece that incorporates the op-ed.
Professor Katherine C. Pearson teaches courses on contract law and elder law and is also the Arthur L. and Sandra S. Piccone Faculty Scholar for Penn State Dickinson Law. She recently completed a Fulbright Fellowship at University of Ottawa in Canada, researching comparative approaches to access to justice. Professor Pearson and Penn State students will join Professor Vanessa Gruben and students at the University of Ottawa in the fall of 2025 for a jointly held comparative practices seminar on “Health Law, Elder Law, Policy and Ethics.