On 28 February 2023, Alzheimer Europe held an online Alzheimer’s Association Academy session, focused on the topic of “Understanding clinical trials”. The event featured presentations from four speakers and was attended by 33 participants. Angela Bradshaw (Project Officer, Alzheimer Europe) was the moderator for the session. In her presentation, “From Preclinical research to Market Authorisation: Understanding the development process for new medicines”, Beatrix Friedeberg (Janssen) discussed how medicines are researched and approved, the different phases of development and the role of regulatory agencies (FDA, EMA). The following speaker was Ruth Croney (Roche), who presented “Conducting clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease – taking into account needs and preferences of people with dementia and their care partners”. She focused on what the participation in a clinical trial entails for a research participant and which examinations and assessments research participants typically have to undergo. She also examined how the views and experiences of research participants could help to improve clinical trials.
Mark Dubbelman (Alzheimer Centre Amsterdam, Netherlands) shared some insights on assessments, examinations and scales used in clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease and what they mean for people with dementia and their carers. His presentation looked at which scales are used by researchers to assess the cognitive functioning and the ability to undertake activities of daily living and at which biomarkers are used in clinical trials. The final speaker was Chris Albertyn (King’s College London, UK). He spoke about how patients, carers and Alzheimer associations can make sense of clinical trial results, how to understand key statistical concepts that are used for the presentation of clinical trial results (p-values, hazard ratios and confidence intervals) and at different ways of presenting research results, including how efficacy and safety are presented. Alzheimer Europe’s next online Alzheimer’s Association Academy session will be held on 26 April and the topic will be “Dementia and the LGBTQ+ community”.
