The UAB Brain Aging and Memory Clinic opened in spring 2024, marking a new era of care in the field of Alzheimer’s disease and other memory-related disorders for Alabama and the region. One initiative the new space has helped support is clinical trials, bolstering UAB’s status as a performance site for the clinical trials of the most recent generation of anti-Alzheimer therapies.
“The availability of clinical trials is a major draw for many patients and families coming to the Brain Aging and Memory Clinic,” said David Geldmacher, M.D., FACP, director of the Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology housed in the Brain Aging and Memory Clinic. “Not only do trials offer the opportunity to have the first access to new, potentially effective therapies, but patients often express the desire to help develop treatments that will help future generations avoid the challenges of Alzheimer's disease.”
The Alzheimer's clinical trial program at UAB is part of two significant national clinical trials consortia, the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium and the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network Trial Unit. Both of these consortia keep the UAB program up-to-date with access to the latest clinical trial opportunities.
The program has five to seven trials running at any given time, representing trial opportunities across a range of Alzheimer’s severity—from unimpaired through moderate dementia.
Another focus of the program is not just on patients with Alzheimer’s disease, but also on their families and caregivers. For example, from 2015-2019, the program conducted a study that focused on telemedicine support for dementia caregiving.
“This set the stage for us being able to maintain effective care through the Memory Clinic when the COVID-19 pandemic shifted everyone to telemedicine,” Geldmacher recalled. “We continue to have telemedicine services as a key part of care delivery and continue research on remote caregiver support in collaboration with the UAB School of Nursing.”
Physicians also benefit from these clinical trial opportunities, according to Geldmacher.
“Beyond the value to patients, our physicians gain important experience in managing the medications, their efficacy, and possible side effects in the controlled setting of trials,” he said. “This became an important source of knowledge and expertise for the UAB Brain Aging and Memory Clinic neurologists, helping them get a head start when new treatments became available for prescriptive use.”
The Alzheimer’s clinical trial program at UAB had 29 participants enrolled in five interventional trials at the time of this publication, with two additional trials planning to open enrollment in the next six months. The Department of Neurology currently has 130 active clinical trials.
To learn more about clinical trial opportunities, please contact