Elder Care Expert Advice

Elder Life Planning recently signed a contract to provide ongoing consultant services to a major Alzheimer’s research firm. Our client has successfully completed the first 2 phases of research trials, known as the ICARA study, on a breakthrough drug to treat Alzheimer’s.(If you watched the HBO Alzheimer’s Special recently, the drug, Bapineuzumab, along with the ELAN research team, was prominently featured.)

They have now received approval from the FDA to move into Stage III of the drug trials which allows them to expand the scope of the research nationwide and in Canada.

Our role in the project is to identify potential participants in the Stage III trial and assure their ongoing commitment and compliance with the clinical protocols. Participants will include elders who are showing signs of mild to moderate dementia and a designated caregiver. (Residents of dementia units would not be suitable as they are likely to be at a more advanced stage than the research criteria requires.)

We can recruit and screen subjects using home care agencies, assisted living residents, adult day health programs, and geriatric care managers.

There is an opportunity for geriatric care managers, assisted living facilities and home care agencies to play an active role in this project as well as other clinical trials in the near future. This could include helping us to follow subjects and family caregivers who are either living at home, or in assisted living facilities for 18 months.

There are some significant advantages for elder care professionals to participate in this study as it will be receiving widespread media coverage as the trial progresses.

This is the first time that the scientific community involved with cutting edge research on illnesses that primarily affect elders has worked with a nationwide network of eldercare professionals. We at Informed Eldercare Decisions believe that the time has come for professionals who interface with those most likely to benefit from this research to play an active role in these studies. This new partnership between the provider community and the research community also opens up new revenue opportunities for both non-profit and for profit eldercare agencies.

Rather than try to describe the project in any more detail in this newsletter, I encourage you to review an excerpt from the HBO Alzheimer’s Special that specifically describes the breakthrough research we are now involved with.
If you think you or your agency or eldercare professional practice would be interested in exploring participation in these studies further please review the following excerpt from the HBO broadcast.

“Inflammation, the Immune System, and Alzheimer’s”
(Approx. 29:23 min) Featuring: Joseph Rogers, PhD-Banner Sun Health Research Institute; Dale Schenk, PhD- and his research team at Elan Pharmaceuticals.

You can view the video by placing either of the following links into your URL locator.

http://www.hbo/alzheimers/supplementary-inflammation-the-immune-system-and-alzheimers.html