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AD-Related Dementias Focus
Improve AD/ADRD assessment tools (cognitive, biomarkers, -omics) and analytic methods to enhance generalizability and equity of scientific research.
2029 RFA-NS-17-012: Detecting Cognitive Impairment, Including Dementia, in Primary Care and Other Everyday Clinical Settings for the General Public and in Health Disparities Populations (UG3/UH3) NOT-NS-21-047: Administrative Supplements to Promote Diversity for NINDS Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Awardees RFA-AG-23-021: More Monitoring of Cognitive Change, Continued (M3C3) (U2C Clinical Trial Optional) RFA-NS-24-001: Using Multimodal Biomarkers to Differentially Diagnose ADRDs for Clinical Trials (U19 Clinical Trial Optional) 11.H In Progress Improve tools for assessment of risks, preclinical characteristics, and costs among health disparities populations by leveraging existing data/cohorts, designing targeted studies, and using psychometric analyses. DN 2019 ADRD Summit: Health Disparities (HD), Focus Area 1: Assessment, Milestone 1 2022 ADRD Summit: Health Equity in AD/ADRD, Milestone 5 Relevant 2023 Dementia Care Summit G&Os: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 News: NIH forms new consortium to improve detection of cognitive impairment, including dementia Workshop: Health Disparities and Inequities in Neurological Disorders Workshop: Advancing Digital Endpoints & Digital Health Technologies for Neurological and Neuromuscular Disorders News: New clinical assessment tool improves dementia care actions in primary care patients Enabling Technologies and Disease Monitoring DetectCID Diverse VCID: White Matter Lesion Etiology of Dementia in Diverse Populations Determinants of Incident Stroke Cognitive Outcomes and Vascular Effects on Recovery (DISCOVERY) Select projects funded in FY21 2016
- At least two research programs to develop and validate culturally informed assessment tools to detect early cognitive changes including non-English-speaking people and people with varying levels of education.
- At least one new study that that determines relationships among genes, environmental, and other biological factors that impact AD/ADRD risk and outcomes in diverse populations.
Summary of Key Accomplishments
NINDS continues to support DetectCID, a national consortium which is developing, testing, and validating several novel cognitive impairment assessments that are simple, culturally appropriate, and easy to administer in primary care and other everyday clinical settings. A recent pragmatic clinical trial using one of the DetectCID paradigms that combines a five-minute cognitive assessment with a decision tree embedded in electronic health records demonstrated improved diagnosis and management in a diverse population of patients in New York City. This study provides evidence to promote practice change to improve dementia outcomes in primary care.
In addition, NIH-funded researchers recently developed and validated a tool called the Electronic Health Record Risk of Alzheimer’s and Dementia Assessment Rule (eRADAR) which uses routinely collected clinical data to detect unrecognized dementia. eRADAR has the potential to enable earlier, more accurate diagnoses of dementia in older adults.
The key accomplishments summary is current as of July 2024.