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Opinion: How bankers and doctors can collaborate to detect ‘early warnings’ of Alzheimer’s

Real-time analyses of individuals' financial transactions could serve as an early warning of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.
Source: APStock

Banking and medicine have little in common. One is for creating and managing wealth, the other for managing health. Yet together they could help detect and fight the growing burden of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. I call this partnership of banking and medicine whealthcare.

Thanks to decades-long advances in personal and public health, the average 65-year-old American can expect to live another 19 years. This remarkable progress presents a challenge: Many people might not have enough money to live that long.

The monthly pension check has gone the way of the electric typewriter and calculator. Retirement for retirement — are ours to manage, and we really need that cash to pay for our living expenses and most of our long-term care. Aging Americans are also taking on more debt, such as their children’s and grandchildren’s student loans. Since 1992, the proportion of Americans  has increased from one-third to one-half.

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