Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation and Brain Health Registry Partner to Accelerate Alzheimer’s Treatment by 2025

Butler Hospital is one of six key institutions supporting the efforts of a new partnership between the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation and the Brain Health Registry at the University of California at San Francisco to grow its global registry of potential Alzheimer’s clinical trial candidates. “This is not only an exciting advancement, but an essential endeavor if we hope to achieve the national goal of finding a treatment for Alzheimer’s by 2025,” said Stephen Salloway, MD, MS, director of the Memory and Aging Program at Butler Hospital, and professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Currently enrolling participants in 11 Alzheimer’s research studies at Butler Hospital, Dr. Salloway knows firsthand the benefits a robust database could provide both in the form of cost-savings and in accelerating the timelines of the recruitment phase of research.

Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation today announced a partnership with Internet based Brain Health Registry, launched and led by researchers at UC San Francisco (UCSF), to grow its global registry of potential Alzheimer’s clinical trial candidates and accelerate a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. Through the partnership, Global Alzheimer’s Platform aims to add tens of thousands of new registry members by the third quarter of 2016, and learn how to most effectively grow membership as its global registry expands. The launch includes support from major medical institutions across the country, and a national public service announcement (PSA) campaign featuring TV stars Linda Gray and Samantha Harris and renowned author B. Smith.

Join the Cause

Those who wish to help in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease can register free at Brain Health Registry and help spread the word using #BeatAlzheimers.

Local Markets, Targeted Outreach

Acclaimed research institutions and medical professionals across the country are supporting the effort, working with Global Alzheimer’s Platform and the Brain Health Registry to increase the effectiveness of recruitment efforts with targeted local outreach campaigns. These include:

  • Atlanta: Allan Levey, MD, PhD (Emory University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center) and Marshall L. Nash, MD (Neurostudies.net).
  • Boston: Dorene Rentz, PsyD and Gad Marshall, MD (Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Massachusetts General Hospital; Harvard Medical School)
  • Las Vegas: Jeffrey Cummings, MD (Cleveland Clinic’s Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health)
  • Providence, Rhode Island: Stephen Salloway, MD (The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Butler Hospital)
  • San Francisco: Michael Weiner, MD (UCSF)

Unified Effort to Find a Cure

Global Alzheimer’s Platform, headquartered in Washington, D.C., was launched in 2014 by UsAgainstAlzheimer’s and the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s disease. The organization’s goal is to reduce the duration (by up to two years), the cost and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials, and turn Alzheimer’s Disease sufferers into survivors. Executing on this vision, Global Alzheimer’s Platform is now working with multiple organizations, beginning with the Brain Health Registry, to build an integrated global clinical trial network with a pool of individuals ready, willing and able to enter clinical trials. Brain Health Registry is a free web‐based effort led by researchers at UCSF designed to more quickly identify appropriate clinical trial candidates and speed the path to cures for Alzheimer’s disease and other brain disorders.

Alzheimer’s Facts

  • More than 500,000 people die from Alzheimer’s disease each year.
  • Alzheimer’s is not just a disease of old age – 200,000 people in their 30s, 40s and 50s have early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
  • 44 million people worldwide are currently living with Alzheimer's disease dementia.
  • 135 million people will be living with Alzheimer's disease dementia by 2050 if aggressive and effective action isn't taken now.

About Global Alzheimer’s Platform

The Global Alzheimer’s Platform initiative was launched in 2014 by UsAgainstAlzheimer’s and the Global CEO Initiative (CEOi) on Alzheimer’s Disease with the vision of creating an integrated global clinical trial network to reduce the time, cost and risk of Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials, a critical factor in the pacing of efforts to speed an effective treatment of Alzheimer’s disease to those with or at risk of the disease. Global Alzheimer’s Platform, headquartered in Washington, D.C., aims to create a faster pathway to a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. It intends to do so by building a standing global clinical trial platform of willing individuals through novel web‐based recruitment techniques coupled with a network of high performance clinical trial sites. Global Alzheimer’s Platform also provides an organizational framework that links prominent research institutions, the private sector and government agencies in multiple countries to fight Alzheimer’s disease. For more information, please visit Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation.

About Brain Health Registry

Brain Health Registry is a groundbreaking free, online platform designed to speed the path to cures for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, PTSD, mild cognitive impairment and other brain disorders. Brain Health Registry gathers data from volunteers who have registered and completed questionnaires and cognitive tests on the Brain Health Registry website. Brain Health Registry aims to reduce the cost of patient recruitment for clinical trials by building a large online pool of potential candidates. The registry is led by Dr. Michael Weiner, professor of radiology and biomedical engineering, medicine, psychiatry and neurology at UC San Francisco (UCSF), along with other UCSF researchers, and involves collaboration with several other top scientific institutions. For more information please visit the Brain Health Registry.

 

About Butler Hospital

Butler Hospital, a member of Care New England, is the only private, nonprofit psychiatric and substance abuse hospital serving adults, seniors and adolescents in Rhode Island and southeastern New England. Founded in 1844, it was the first hospital in Rhode Island and has earned a reputation as the leading provider of innovative psychiatric treatments in the region. The Major Affiliated Teaching Hospital for Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Butler is recognized worldwide as a pioneer in conducting cutting-edge research.