2023 Strategic Grant (SG)
Prospective validation of high-performing blood biomarkers and digital cognitive tests in both specialist memory clinic and general primary care settings
Oskar Hansson
Lund University, Department of Clinical Sciences/ Malmoe
Malmoe, Sweden
Blood biomarkers (BBMs) will revolutionize the detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, but they are not yet ready for widespread use. Exciting progress is being made toward the development of BBMs that can indicate the likelihood of amyloid or tau accumulation in the brain and track changes in protein levels in response to treatment. However, leading international clinicians and researchers convened by the Alzheimer’s Association have concluded that more data are needed before BBMs can be used as a stand-alone test for diagnosis. To accelerate the use of BBMs, the Alzheimer's Association has funded a study led by Dr. Oskar Hansson, explores the use of high-performing blood biomarkers and digital cognitive tests in both specialist memory clinics and general primary care settings to validate the effectiveness of BBMs for use in primary care. This is a large-scale study of 1,600 participants aiming to understand the implications of BBMs on the care pathway, detection and diagnosis, and the type of support that patients need.