Site Description

Research in the IADRC focuses on studying the progression, finding earlier diagnosis and treatment of symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. To achieve this goal, researchers collect vast amounts of data including medical information, imaging, and genetic, neurological and neuropsychological information. This was done by collecting medical information on patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The type of data that is collected is vast and includes imaging, genetic, neurological, and autopsy information.

My personal goals were learning about Alzheimer’s disease, how medical research is conducted and how a medical specialist practices medicine.

These goals were accomplished through careful observation and by asking questions of the doctors, research coordinators, and nurses involved with this project. I supported the Clinical Research Team with their administrative and organizational tasks, including data entry of medical records, and other administrative forms into the REDcap database. I also prepared Clinical Core Charts for upcoming visits of research patients and filed medical information. .

Providing administrative support allowed the Clinical Research Team to focus more on their clinical tasks, including patient support and data verification. The goal of Alzheimer’s Research is to be able to effectively prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease.

After meeting with the PI's of this research project, there are things that I learned that are worth mentioning. First, the most interesting thing is that the research is about as decade from slowing down Alzheimer's disease progression by four years. This while, is not a full cure, would give many old people a longer quality life for a significant amount of time. The work right now is finding the opportune time and dosage of amyloid removers to properly treat the disease. It was seen that too much amyloid that was then removed showed no real cognitive improvement. However, certain drugs show promise work in patients with mild amyloid buildup. Finally it is worth mentioning, how much data is collected. For every data type collection a patient earns a gift card. In one visit a patent can earn up to 11 gift cards if they take on all the data collection procedures.