Pongpat Putthinun is a health economist and postdoctoral scholar in the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. He joined the Decision Lab team, led by Dr. Winston Chiong, and is currently working on a project aimed at understanding how genetic predispositions to frontotemporal dementia influence decision-making in the pre-symptomatic phase. Through neuroeconomic methods, the research seeks to identify incidents of early impaired judgment that could lead to early intervention strategies to decelerate the onset of frontotemporal dementia.
He has a PhD in Health Economics from Hiroshima University and a master’s degree with a specialization in Human Resource Development from Waseda University in Tokyo. His doctoral research focused on identifying key determinants that exposed populations to increased health risks thereby enabling timely intervention measures.
Having lived for extended periods in Thailand, Japan, and the United States, with fluency in each country’s language, he has diverse perspectives on healthcare practices and attitudes toward dementia and the disparate resources across borders and demographic groups. He aims to leverage his background in health economics and the expertise developed at UCSF Memory and Aging Center to contribute to the advancement of brain health equity through enhanced public health programs.