Alzheimer's disease public-private partnerships: update 2014.

The National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease highlights the need for coordinated public-private partnerships. In recent years, the number of collaborations and consortia have expanded and grown in Alzheimer's research. The Alzheimer's Association compiles this annually updated compendium to centralize this inventory of partnerships in an effort to synergize these activities. This manuscript reflects the 2014 landscape of non-profit organizations who engage in public-private partnerships to promote and support dementia research.

Expanding efforts to address Alzheimer's disease: the Healthy Brain Initiative.

The growing burden of Alzheimer's disease underscores the importance of enhancing current public health efforts to address dementia. Public health organizations and entities have substantial opportunities to contribute to efforts underway and to add innovations to the field. The Alzheimer's Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worked with a 15-member leadership committee and hundreds of stakeholders to create The Healthy Brain Initiative: The Public Health Road Map for State and National Partnerships, 2013-2018 (Road Map). The actions in the Road Map provide a foundation for the public health community to anticipate and respond to emerging innovations and developments. It will be a challenge to harness the increasingly complex nature of public- and private-sector collaborations. We must strengthen the capacity of public health agencies, leverage partnerships, and find new ways to integrate cognitive functioning into public health efforts.

Alzheimer's Disease prevalence, costs, and prevention for military personnel and veterans.

By 2050, more than 13 million Americans of all ages are estimated to be living with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the aggregate costs of care will swell to approximately $1.2 trillion. The rapidly climbing number of those affected with AD includes a growing population of aging military veterans affected who may have an added risk for the disease as a consequence of traumatic brain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, and/or service-related injuries. The increasing number of individuals, the long duration of disability, and the rising cost of care for AD and other dementia to our society are important public health challenges facing many older adults. These challenges are further compounded by a burgeoning military veteran population that is much younger, with an increased risk of AD and other dementia, and who may experience decades-long periods of disability and care. This outlook underscores the critical need for investments in research at the federal and international levels to accelerate the pace of progress in developing breakthrough discoveries that will change the trajectory of AD and related dementia.

The Alzheimer's Study Group's recommendations five years later: planning has advanced, but agenda remains unfinished.

Five years ago the Alzheimer's Study Group released its assessment and recommendations in a final report to the 111th Congress. Sobered by the burden of Alzheimer's and the anticipated trajectory of the disease, the Alzheimer's Study Group recommended the development of a rigorous research plan to be fully funded by Congress. Congress acted on the first of these recommendations by passing the National Alzheimer's Project Act, signed into law in 2011. The Department of Health and Human Services, in turn, released the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease in 2012. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) then followed in 2013 with a specific research program to achieve the national plan's goal to "prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer's disease by 2025." With one of the Alzheimer's Study Group's recommendations fulfilled, the critical remaining questions are whether the NIH's Alzheimer's research program will be adequately funded and continue to be effectively executed so as to meet the 2025 goal.

A roadmap for the prevention of dementia II: Leon Thal Symposium 2008.

This document proposes an array of recommendations for a National Plan of Action to accelerate the discovery and development of therapies to delay or prevent the onset of disabling symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. A number of key scientific and public-policy needs identified in this document will be incorporated by the Alzheimer Study Group into a broader National Alzheimer's Strategic Plan, which will be presented to the 111th Congress and the Obama administration in March 2009. The Alzheimer's Strategic Plan is expected to include additional recommendations for governance, family support, healthcare, and delivery of social services.