Outreach, Recruitment & Education Core

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

CORE E: ORE - ABSTRACT The primary objective of the ORE Core is to recruit necessary and appropriate research participants for enrollment in the Clinical Core, participation in ADRC Project 3 and in ADRC-affiliated clinical research projects focused on biomarkers and experimental therapeutics. The Core also recruits participants for collaborative studies of the national ADC Program, such as the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, and for special initiatives, e.g., the Department of Defense-AD Neuroimaging Initiative. The ORE Core will continue our increasingly successful recruitment of participants from the African American community for Clinical Core enrollment and research study participation. The ORE Core also is initiating an innovative outreach program to the growing and markedly underserved urban American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) community of the Puget Sound area. Another essential goal will be training and mentoring of sophisticated new physicians and scientists who can integrate evolving clinical and neuroscience knowledge into productive AD translational research and continuing education of clinicians and lay caregivers so that advances in biomarker development and experimental therapeutics are integrated into clinical practice and daily care. Specific Aim 1. Recruit and retain research participants for UW ADRC-, ADC program- and NIA- affiliated research projects. Increasing recognition of the importance of using neuroimaging and biospecimen biomarkers to evaluate novel AD therapeutics in the earliest stages of AD requires recruitment to the Clinical Core of persons with prodromal and early stage AD dementia, and older persons with intact cognitive function who may be in the presymptomatic stage of AD. Later stage AD dementia patients with characteristics necessary for inclusion in specific clinical studies will also will be recruited. Specific Aim 2. Recruit and retain research participants from underserved Puget Sound minority community. We continue to reach out to and recruit participants from the African American community. We will initiate outreach and participant recruitment in the markedly underserved local urban AI/AN community in collaboration with the proposed UW ADRC Satellite Core and the UW Partnerships for Native Health. Specific Aim 3. Educate professional clinicians and lay care providers in the recognition and treatment of AD, and facilitate the multidisciplinary training and mentoring of new investigators in AD and related disorders. Professional education will proceed via: education of medical students; mentorship of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty; and medical education to university, VA, and community physicians locally, regionally and nationally. Lay education proceeds via outreach to the community both directly from the ORE Core and in partnership with the Alzheimer's Association of Central and Western Washington; and via the UW ADRC website and publication of the Dimensions newsletter.