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Supporting patients and caregivers on World Alzheimer’s Day
Tiffany Chow, Medical Strategy Director, Neurology
Sep 20, 2019

Today, the prognosis for patients with dementia asserts a decline into disability and death. Facing an uncertain future, patients and their caregivers need reassurance that they are doing everything that can be done to fight the disease, whether Alzheimer’s or another cause of dementia.  

At IQVIA, we provide this support in part by implementing clinical trials to find treatments and preventive therapies. Did you know IQVIA has launched the most dementia-related trials to date? Specifically, we’ve conducted 102 AD trials across 59 investigational products, with upwards of 38,000 subjects enrolled.

Another aspect of reassurance can come through the release of vetted updates. Just Google “Alzheimer’s disease care” and you’ll receive tens of millions of results. Since 1998, I have sent e-newsletters to caregivers of patients participating in clinical research. Twenty years ago, there was so little information available about Alzheimer’s and non-Alzheimer’s dementias (e.g., frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies), that I felt I owed it to my patients to let them know whenever I saw a noteworthy new medical journal article or heard a great talk at a conference.

In 2013, I started an external blog (drchowftd.wordpress.com) to educate patients and families. Since I launched the blog, I’ve written 265 posts, which include articles about:

  • Clinically significant dementia research
  • The importance of clinical trial recruitment
  • Colleagues doing innovative work
  • Dementia education 
  • The need for non-Caucasian, diverse population information
  • Keeping caregivers healthy
  • How to reduce risk factors for dementia. 

Most of the readers are caregivers, and it’s great to have them comment with validation for what I’ve reported or suggestions for other connections in the field. 

For this year’s World Alzheimer’s Awareness Day, September 21, please consider lending your support to anyone you know who is caring for someone with dementia. Here’s a post with tips on how to help: https://drchowftd.wordpress.com/2019/08/14/reprise-of-the-best-friends-approach-with-an-update/

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