On 17 May, the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC) hosted a webinar on “Driving early detection across aging societies”. The webinar was organised as part of its Learning Laboratory series, a forum for representatives across national public health organisations, policy, research, and industry, from different resource settings, to share learnings from Alzheimer’s research initiatives aimed at common operational challenges in healthcare system preparedness. George Vradenburg, Chairman of DAC, launched the webinar by welcoming the audience and speakers, highlighting the value of platforms such as the Learning Laboratory, which bring together stakeholders to engage and learn from shared projects, and take action in their jurisdictions. The keynote speaker was Dr Antonio Arauz of the Mexican National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery. He gave an overview of the prevalence and risk factors for dementia in Mexico, explaining how clinicians and social services are working together to implement the Mexican dementia plan and improve diagnosis rates and post-diagnostic support. The first section of the webinar was focused on incorporating digital technologies into clinical practice, and challenges encountered along the way in different countries and resource settings.
The panel of speakers included representatives of flagship sites for the DAC Healthcare Systems Preparedness (HSP) project, based in the US, Mexico, Scotland, south and central America, and Japan. Discussions centered around challenges in raising awareness of digital technologies and biomarkers in different patient populations and to different types of healthcare professionals; speakers highlighted that there is substantial variation in how diagnosis and post-diagnostic support is managed in different countries, with special efforts required to ensure timely and targeted involvement of these groups. The second section of the webinar was chaired by Phyllis Ferrell, who is leading the HSP project at DAC. This section was focused on how to improve cognitive assessment rates for older adults, in different countries and healthcare systems.
The speakers represented recipients of the first DAC grant for improving AD detection, which received 75 applications from 24 countries. They talked about how they would use funding to embed cognitive assessment programmes in primary care systems that are currently overstretched; develop and pilot novel diagnostic tools in the community setting, and provide training and outreach platforms to engage healthcare professionals, patients and caregivers in constructive dialogues around mental health and cognitive impairment. The Learning Laboratory webinar was closed by Dr Tarun Dua of the World Health Organisation, who congratulated DAC on identifying health systems preparedness as an important issue to tackle. She explained that community screening, management and engagement initiatives can reduce stigma for other diseases as well as for dementia, and lauded efforts to bring together stakeholders in the private and public sectors to build capacity, accelerate innovation, and address a key area of unmet clinical need.
The DAC calls on national governments, health system leaders, civil society organisations, the private sector, and other stakeholders to scale emerging lessons and innovative models for health system readiness, as we work together to transform Alzheimer’s responses around the world. Speakers at the Learning Laboratory highlighted five focus areas that are vital for progress:
- Ensure solutions are sustainable and scalable for all resource levels. To deliver impact at scale, solutions for early detection, prevention, and care must work in high-, medium-, and low-resource settings. Governments and health systems should explore how digital cognitive assessments, blood-based biomarkers, and other tools can integrate into clinical practice and democratize access by addressing common barriers, such as expense, wait times, specialist shortages, and cultural stigma.
- Drive change from both the “bottom-up” and “top-down.” Health systems can accelerate progress against Alzheimer’s by joining high-level strategies, policies, and guidelines with autonomy and choice for frontline health workers. Health system efforts should engage working groups of providers and other stakeholders on key program design decisions, then empower frontline providers as much as possible to choose what works best for their practice, their community, and those they serve.
- Coordinate new care models with existing policy initiatives. Policy, civil society, medical, and private-sector leaders should collaborate across domains to assess how new care models or efforts can best fit into or build on current Alzheimer’s policy initiatives. As novel scientific and medical advances emerge, they should be harnessed in collaboration with national action plans, health registries, community health centers, and global research groups.
- Tailor for local cultural context. Health equity and program efficacy depend on meeting the needs, priorities, and cultures of local communities. By sharing best practices and toolkits across geographies and health systems, the global Alzheimer’s community can provide the foundation to then customize strategies to each society. This requires continuous effort, sincere relationship-building, and close attention to feedback from individuals and families.
- Prioritize innovative approaches to detection and diagnosis. Governments and research organizations should continue to invest in the development and deployment of more efficient approaches to Alzheimer’s detection, such as retinal screening, mobile clinics, and digital cognitive assessments. These emerging modalities promise to transform care pathways for earlier and more widespread risk reduction, prevention, diagnosis, and intervention, bolstering overall health system readiness.
Project Officers Angela Bradshaw and Cindy Birck represented Alzheimer Europe at the meeting.
To view a video recording of the Learning Laboratory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHIaO6c6tNw