Direct-to-patient healthcare company Ro announced an agreement with the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to develop the Registry for Equal Access to Clinical Trials in Alzheimer’s Disease (REACT-AD).
Ro will use its telehealth platform to screen and recruit patients at high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or other related dementias to join REACT-AD for potential participation in clinical trials conducted and funded by the NIA.
The NIA, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will analyze the data received and oversee the publication of research results that flow from REACT-AD.
REACT-AD aims to use Ro’s telemedicine platform to diversify participants recruited for clinical trials and reduce barriers to clinical trial participation, such as the need for transportation, childcare, and stops of work.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT
More than six million Americans live with ADand one in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, making it the seventh leading cause of death in the United States
“Ensuring equal access to Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials for all individuals is not only a moral imperative, but also sound scientific practice,” said Dr. Madhav Thambisetty, Principal Investigator and Head of the Section of Clinical and Translational Neurosciences (CTNS) at the NIA, said in a statement. “We are excited to create a diverse, decentralized registry of trial-ready participants that will allow us to test the most promising AD treatments emerging from our ongoing research.”
THE GREAT TREND
Efforts have been made to use technology to treat AD and other related dementias.
Earlier this year, Fujifilm Company announced clinical trial results for its AI Technology for AD Progression Prediction platform. He determined that the technology can predict whether patients with mild cognitive impairment will progress to AD within two years.
The trial showed that Fujifilm’s platform could predict AD progression with 88% and 84% accuracy in American and Japanese patients, respectively.
Alzheimer’s research in the UK launched a similar initiative two years ago to improve the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease through technology. It aimed to create and test a portable diagnostic device to detect disease markers.