The science to detect Alzheimer’s early exists; the system to deliver it does not
For the first time, medicine can slow Alzheimer’s disease, but the new drugs only work early, and across Europe most people are still diagnosed too late or not at all. Mercè Boada Rovira, one of Spain’s most experienced dementia clinicians, told a policy meeting in Rome what it would take to change that.
Boada has spent three decades diagnosing dementia at the ACE Alzheimer Centre in Barcelona. She was speaking at MindShift, a policy dialogue that brought clinicians, policymakers and patient representatives from 12 European countries to Rome on 9-10 June. The meeting was convened to align national strategies and shape a common European approach to Alzheimer’s care.
Her message on early diagnosis was that the science to catch Alzheimer’s early exists, but the systems to deliver it do not, and too many patients are never found.
“The 53% is undetected,” she said, and that, she argued, is not only “a clinical opportunity” but “a government health system responsibility.”
