Dr. Walter Dawson studies the public policy implications of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias including the financial impact on families and the public programs that finance care. His specific research interests include global health policy, long-term services and supports financing, and interventions to better support people living with dementia including improved cognitive screening and dementia detection.

In addition to an appointment at the OHSU School of Medicine, Dr. Dawson is a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health with the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) at the University of California, San Francisco and faculty at Portland State University’s Institute on Aging. Dr. Dawson has extensive direct experience in national and state-level public policy. As staff at the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, he worked on provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to increase access to long-term services and supports. Dr. Dawson is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Publications

Dawson W, Boucher N, Stone R, & Van Houtven C (2021). COVID-19: The Time for Collaboration between Long-Term Services and Supports, Health Care Systems and Public Health is Now. The Milbank Quarterly.

Dawson W, Bobrow K, Ibanez A, Booi L, Pintado-Caipa M, Yamamoto S, Tarnanas I, Evans T, Comas-Herrera A, Cummings J, Kaye J, Yaffe K, Miller B, & Eyre H (2020). The Necessity of Diplomacy in Brain Health. Lancet Neurology, 19(12):972–974.

Boucher N, Van Houtven C, and Dawson W (2020). Older Adults Post-Incarceration: Restructuring Long-Term Services and Supports in the Time of COVID-19. JAMDA, 22(3): 504-509.

Dawson W, Bangerter L, & Splaine M (2020). The Politics of Caregiving: Taking Stock of State Level Policies to Support Family Caregivers. Public Policy & Aging Report, 30(2): 62-66.

Ternes K, Iyengar V, Lavretsky H, Dawson W, Booi L, Ibanez A, Vahia I, Reynolds C, DeKosky S, Cummings J, Miller B, Perissinotto C, Kaye J, & Eyre H (2020). Brain health INnovation Diplomacy: a model binding diverse disciplines to manage the promise and perils of technological innovation. International Psychogeriatrics, 32(8):955-979.

Dawson W and Cutler J (2020). Addressing Long-Term Services and Supports Reform via Medicare. Yes, Medicare, that Post-Acute Care Program. Journal of Aging & Social Policy, 32(2):108-124.

Dawson W (2017). Winning the Fight to End Alzheimer Disease. JAMA Neurology, 74(8): 896–897.