New disease-modifying therapies are becoming available and can slow disease progression for certain groups of patients. This represents a major shift in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
However, healthcare systems are not yet equipped to deliver these new medicines at scale. Many patients wait years for diagnosis, access to imaging and biomarker testing remains uneven, and specialist services face growing capacity constraints. Safe treatment delivery and ongoing monitoring place additional demands on healthcare systems.
ACCESS-AD will implement accessible diagnostics, digital tools and decision support in real-world clinical pathways, enabling earlier treatment selection, safer use of disease-modifying therapies, tailored interventions and monitoring across specialist and primary care settings. These gaps risk widening health inequalities, as access to diagnosis, treatment and follow-up can depend on geography and resources. Across Europe, up to half of people with Alzheimer’s disease are never formally diagnosed, and many are only diagnosed at a much later stage, when treatment options are more limited and less effective.
ACCESS-AD has been created to address this challenge directly. This new initiative, co-led by Amsterdam UMC, Siemens Healthineers, King's College London and Gates Ventures, brings together 30 public and private partners.
Acknowledgement
This project is supported by the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU) under grant agreement No 101253010. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and COCIR, EFPIA, Europa Bío, MedTech Europe, and Vaccines Europe, and Anavex, Muhdo and Neurimmune.
More information about ACCESS-AD is available here: https://www.access-ad.org/
