Deborah Kan Hong Kong

Deborah Kan is the founder and Executive Editor of Being Patient, an online journal dedicated to the latest news on Alzheimer’s disease and brain health research. She founded the site after growing frustrated with a lack of educational resources following her mother being diagnosed with the disease.

Increasing life expectancy means Alzheimer’s is an issue faced by more families around the world. At a very distressing time, Being Patient provides an invaluable community for sufferers and their relatives. An Alzheimer’s diagnosis also brings genetic implications for those relatives. Being Patient looks at how genetic predispositions to the disease might be reversed through lifestyle factors. With a cure still a distant dream, Alzheimer’s research focuses on prevention and looks at the roles of exercise, diet, and sleep in protecting the brain.

The issues of Alzheimer’s and, more broadly, mental health are vitally important for today’s businesses. With regard to the former, the world’s senior population (over 65s) will increase from just under one billion today to over two billion by 2050. This can bring great opportunities and a booming ‘Silver Dollar’. Alternatively, any consumption boost will be offset by rising healthcare costs. Therefore, increasing our knowledge around brain health will both aid the mental health of working generations and protect them in their future years.

Prior to founding Being Patient, Deborah Kan was an executive producer at The Wall Street Journal in Asia, leading the daily production of video news segments with Journal editors and reporters, as well as video interviews with business leaders and decision-makers.

Before this, Deborah was a news anchor with Reuters Insider, Thomson Reuters’ proprietary news channel, where she reported extensively on the 2008 global economic crisis, China’s 2009 massive economic stimulus package and regulation reform in the aftermath of the economic crisis.

Throughout her career, Deborah Kan has conducted exclusive interviews many world leaders and CEOs, including Uber founder Travis Kalanick, Airbnb’s co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk and Twitter’s former CEO Dick Costolo. She was also one of few international journalists to have interviewed Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, and was the only television journalist from Asia to accompany the New York Philharmonic on their historic 2008 performance in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Deborah is a member of the 2008 class of the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum, and attended the 2010 YGL program at Harvard University.