- Unique global collaboration to prepare health systems for a future with new Alzheimer’s treatments
- Pioneering use of blood-based biomarkers with digital cognitive assessments in primary care
- Innovative, culturally relevant methods that can scale in high, low-and middle-income countries
The Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC) today announced that people with or at risk of Alzheimer’s in six countries will soon have an opportunity to participate in a pilot program designed to increase access to early detection and diagnosis of the disease through the use of innovative new screening tools, which is an essential step to provide better care today, and to prepare for the future availability of treatments. DAC is launching seven pilot sites beginning this month in the US, Scotland, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico and Brazil.
“We are finding enormous appetite from healthcare systems around the world to prepare for future Alzheimer’s treatments, but first we must help healthcare systems adapt to early detection,” said George Vradenburg, Founding Chairman of the Board, Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, and Convener, The Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease. “By working directly with medical professionals, researchers, people at risk, and patients, these sites will utilize cutting-edge technology to change the way we deliver care, and help prepare healthcare systems to get the right treatments to the right patients at every stage of the disease.”
The pilot sites will use simple digital cognitive assessment tools to detect the signs of the disease early, and innovative blood biomarkers to help evaluate the cause of identified symptoms. The goal is to measurably increase rates of timely and accurate diagnosis to put people on the correct person-centered care pathways and mitigate the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on the individual and their family.
Digital cognitive assessments such as Linus Health's Core Cognitive Evaluation, Cogstate’s Cognigram, and Cognivue’s Clarity will be made available to the pilot sites, reducing the need for broad neuropsychological testing, which is time consuming for patients and requires specialized physicians for administration. Digital cognitive assessments also mark a significant technological advance over paper-and-pencil tests in terms of reliability and objectivity. DAC program sites are training other healthcare professionals to administer the digital cognitive assessments. In some cases, it can be administered via a tablet in the patient’s home, marking a dramatic step forward in terms of access and ease-of-use.
The blood-based biomarker, known as the PrecivityAD™ test, is a technology developed by specialty diagnostics company, C2N (St. Louis, MO). The test will aid in the accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, and reduce the need for expensive, hard-to-access, more advanced tests.
“We’re proud and excited to play a key role in DAC’s groundbreaking work to enable Alzheimer’s early detection on a global scale,” said Dr. Joel Braunstein, Co-Founder and CEO of C2N Diagnostics. “Harnessing the power of advanced diagnostics like our PrecivityAD test at DAC’s pilot sites will accelerate the fight to end Alzheimer’s.”
“DAC and the flagship pilot sites are driving new tools into the front lines of care. This is important to help patients today, and develop the data we need to better detect, treat and ultimately prevent this devastating disease,” said Stephen Friend, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Sage Bionetworks, Visiting Professor of Connected Medicine, and President 4YouandMe.
The pilot sites will provide localized care and treatment for individuals and develop models for broader healthcare systems to study and adopt. DAC Learning Labs, a network of governments, public health and healthcare system leaders, will provide a forum for sharing best practices that can be scaled globally.
About the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative
Launched at the World Economic Forum’s 2021 meeting on The Davos Agenda, The Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative is a multi-stakeholder partnership committed to aligning stakeholders with a new vision for our collective global response against the challenges Alzheimer’s presents to patients, caregivers and healthcare infrastructures. Convened by The World Economic Forum and The Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease (CEOi) and fueled by a mission of service to the estimated 150 million families and half a billion people inevitably impacted by this disease by 2050, DAC is a collaborative for the benefit of all people, in all places.
About DAC’s Healthcare System Preparedness Project
DAC’s Healthcare System Preparedness Project is funding innovative approaches that measurably increase rates of cognitive screening, early detection and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. The pilot projects are: AdventHealth Central Florida, FL, USA; Municipality of Volta Redonda, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Alzheimer Scotland; University of the West Indies (UWI), Caribbean Institute for Health Research, Jamaica; Kobe University, Japan; INGER/National Institute of Geriatrics, Mexico; and, Indiana University School of Medicine/Indiana University Health, IN, USA. These initiatives are incorporated into DAC Learning Labs, a network of governments and public health and healthcare system leaders, to share best practices that can be scaled globally.
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NOTE: To join an upcoming Learning Lab such as Meeting of the DAC Learning Laboratory: Driving Early Detection Across Aging Societies, planned for May 17, 2022, click here. This Lab will feature DAC healthcare system pilot sites and demonstrate the first of many collaborative exchanges championed through DAC’s initiatives.
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