Excerpt  – “Early diagnosis is so important,” says Dr. John Dougherty, who runs the Memory Clinic at the University of Tennessee’s Cole Neuroscience Center. “The goal is prevention through delay. If we can delay symptoms by five years with medication and exercise, we can reduce the number of sufferers by six- to eight million—[about] the population of metropolitan Atlanta.”

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The cover featured: Sportsman Of The Year: Mike Krzyzewski / Sportswoman Of The Year: Pat Summitt

The two winningest coaches in Division I college basketball history (907 for him, 1,075 for her) have more in common than just extraordinary success. For reaching far beyond their campuses and refusing to be defined by their genders, SI honors them together.

Selected as the 2011 Technology Company of the Year, Medinteract  was cofounded by Andrew Dougherty. Medinteract provides efficient and effective detection of Alzheimer’s disease by their computer based cognitive screening testing technology. Early detection leads to early intervention delaying the impact of the disease. Medinteract is now providing their detection services to a range of medical service providers across the region.

See the full release from Tech2020′s Tennessee Valley Technology Council.

Click here to see the Presentation

About Pat Summit Foundation

The Pat Summit Foundation Fund believes no family should have to hear a diagnosis like Pat’s: early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type.  The Fund will make grants to nonprofits which provide:

1. Education and awareness of Alzheimer’s its onset and treatment,
2. Support services to patients, their families and caregivers,
3. Research to treat, prevent, cure and ultimately eradicate this disease.

About Alzheimer’s Tennessee, Inc

In 1983, a small group of East Tennessee families began to meet informally in an effort to understand and cope with the ravaging effects of Alzheimer’s disease. Together, the group was able to anticipate, confront, and solve seemingly insurmountable problems with a renewed sense of hope, confidence and accomplishment.

Alzheimer’s Tennessee, Inc. began providing services in East Tennessee as a non-profit organization in 1983. Two years later, the group affiliated with the Chicago-based National Alzheimer’s Association and became known as the Alzheimer’s Association, Eastern Tennessee Chapter, Inc. However, it always remained incorporated in the state of Tennessee and governed by a local Board of Directors.

The Eastern Tennessee Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association returned to its original independent status in August 2011 to ensure that more resources support top research and local services for individuals and families struggling with the devastating disease.

About UT Medical Center and the Cole Neuroscience Center

The Cole Neuroscience Center is the only Neurology sub-specialty center of its kind in the region, The Cole Neuroscience Center offers a complete spectrum of care for degenerative neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Movement Disorders, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Epilepsy. Our specialists work together to develop treatment plans that assist the entire family. From access to the latest diagnostic tools and the newest clinical trials, to offering counseling and long-term care options, the Cole Neuroscience Center has so much to offer – especially hope. Each year the Cole Neuroscience Center serves more than 1400 patients with Parkinson’s disease, 2000 with Alzheimer’s disease and numerous others with neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. John Dougherty, with Cole Neuroscience Center at UT Medical Center, not only talked, he listened as people of all ages shared their stories about life with a loved one struggling with the mind-robbing disease.

Knoxville News Sentinel – Hundreds turn out to hear Alzheimer’s Expert

WATE TV Knoxville, TN – Alzheimer’s Expert Shares His Knowledge at Knoxville Event

WBIR-TV’s Robin Wilhoit interviews Janice Wade-Whitehead & Board member Dr. Monica Crane

Knox News Sentinel interviews Programming Director Linda Johnson about early onset dementia

WBIR-TV (NBC) interviews local family who wants Pat to know she has a bigger team now

WATE-TV (ABC) interviews local woman about her mother’s fight with Alzheimer’s

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued final regulations for implementation of an important provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which will include for the first time an annual wellness benefit for all Medicare beneficiaries beginning January 2011. This Medicare preventive service benefit is significant for the growing number of baby boomers who will soon be reaching the age of Medicare eligibility. It is also particularly important to the Alzheimer’s Association and the more than 5 million Americans it represents because an assessment for the detection of cognitive impairment will be a mandatory part of this annual wellness visit.

Medinteract has long been an advocate for the critical need for regular and early warning screening for Alzheimer’s and dementia. In July, 2010 Medicare began reimbursing physicians for using the Computerized Self Test for cognitive impairment screening in their offices, for those patients presenting with memory concerns. As part of the new regulation it appears that Medicare will not only reimburse for screening of each beneficiary annually, but will require this (or similar) test be performed by their physician.

The Computerized Self Test (CST), a groundbreaking online screen for Alzheimer’s disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), is one of the only tests available today which screens all six of the cognitive domains, something we now know to be critical for understanding ones level of cognition. With over 98% accuracy (clinical trials to date) the CST distinguishes between impaired and non-impaired persons. The CST also provides a level of cognitive detail the primary care physicians (PCP) have not had available from other tests. Using the CST’s computer-generated results, the PCP can now assess exactly which cognitive domain(s) show impairment, as well as severity of the impairment. Patients can be quickly and accurately categorized according to one of 5 groups: normal, MCI, mild, moderate or severe AD.

Armed with this level of detail the PCP can offer an individualized plan of care to each patient, based on their unique level of cognitive function, and upon retest, can accurately assess the efficacy of the existing treatment and adjust interventions, as necessary. This is a tremendous step forward in changing the face of Alzheimer’s disease, a move Medinteract hopes will radically reduce the estimated 60% of persons with Alzheimer’s who are currently going undiagnosed in the primary care setting, during a pivotal time when existing treatments are most effective.

For more information on the CST, please read our validation study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in April, 2010. For questions or information on integrating the CST into your medical practice please contact us.

What is MCI?
The first step in diagnosis for most people is to take an early test. This could be an at-home test like the ALZselftest, or a paper and pencil test in your physician’s office, perhaps the MMSE. On either test the maximum possible score is 30. An individual could score in the 28 – 30 range and still be considered to have normal levels of cognition. In the 26 – 28 range we would typically expect to see a diagnosis of MCI. One the score drops below 26 you see individuals with dementia and would not receive a diagnosis of MCI.

An individual with MCI typically complains of difficulties with memory. Mary came to see me last week. She complained that she was not able to follow recipes as well as she has in the past, and said that she has started misplacing kitchen utensils. Her husband, Jim, told me that Mary has reasonably good computer skills but recently seems confused and unable to perform some basic functions. These reports are very common for someone with MCI. Another issue people present with is inability to balance a checkbook. It is often helpful if a spouse recognizes the mild memory difficulty, as this provides independent verification there is a memory problem.

One critical issue with understanding MCI is that one’s professional or social activities are NOT impaired to the point of problems. The deficit tends to be so mild that it doesn’t disturb practical functioning.

I have MCI. Will I get Alzheimer’s disease?
Not necessarily. While many consider MCI to be a pre-cursor to dementia, it’s important to look at it by the numbers. One year after an MCI diagnosis, 40% of people are unchanged, or do not have worsening symptoms, 20% actually improve. Only 8 – 9% of those convert to AD. One reason for this is MCI can be caused by a number of things: thyroid dysfunction, B12 deficiency or depression.

We are just beginning to understand some new ways to test and measure an individual with MCI, in order to determine who will convert to AD later. This is groundbreaking research in the field of Alzheimer’s disease and we will talk more about it in upcoming posts.

For now, please write us if you have questions about AD or dementia which Dr. Dougherty can answer. For an early warning screen you can take in the privacy of your own home, please visit ALZselftest online.

Please see excerpts from the study below. You can take the first step towards screening your brain in the privacy of your own home with new medical screening like the ALZselftest. This is the only clinically-proven, early warning screen for Alzheimer’s available directly to the public. Which ever route is chosen please know that early and regular screening is our best defense against Alzheimer’s!

Patients diagnosed with dementia through screening ran up 13 percent less in health costs in the first year of treatment than before, according to a study suggesting wider detection could reduce U.S. medical expenses.

The one-year cost for 345 patients who were screened, found to have dementia and treated at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs clinics with specially trained nurses fell to $11,636 each on average, from $13,378 in the 12 months before diagnosis, said J. Riley McCarten, the lead researcher.

Patients with Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia and the seventh-leading cause of death in the U.S., are becoming more numerous and cost three times as much to treat as elderly patients without the disease.

For patients whose dementia is properly diagnosed, health care may become more efficient, McCarten said in the interview. That’s because they can receive chronic care such as phone checkups with nurses, he said. Before diagnosis, patients may be “lurching from crisis to crisis,” undergoing tests and treatment for many possible maladies, after coming to the hospital repeatedly with vague complaints, he said.

An estimated 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer’s. That figure will grow as the population aged 65 and older more than doubles to 89 million in 2050 because of longer life expectancy and the aging of baby boomers, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, an advocacy group based in Chicago.

“If you can detect and diagnose the disease earlier, then one can implement care sooner, so that the hope would be that the individual would have a slower progression of the disease and therefore extend the time before they would need institutionalized care,” said Molly V. Wagster, chief of the behavioral and systems neuroscience branch at the National Institute on Aging, in Bethesda, Maryland

“We would like to see screening become a vital sign, just like taking your weight or blood pressure,” McCarten said. “Right now the health-care system cares about every other organ system, but almost completely ignores the brain.”

I took the self test today, and the results were excellent in all areas. With a family history of Alzheimer’s, having access to a quick, easy, affordable tool to catch problems early, gives me great peace of mind. Now I’ll chalk up my memory problems to overwork, rather than to early ALZ.

We offer the ALZselftest as a way to help people discover early warning signs of Alzheimer’s and get diagnosed early, when treatment options are most effective. But on the other side are the millions of baby boomers who have begun to worry that their memory lapses are something far more serious than mere absent-mindedness or paying insufficient attention. For these folks, like our commenter above, the ALZselftest offers a quick, highly accurate way to find “peace of mind”. The less time you spend fretting about the occasional lost set of keys, the more clear your mind will be, and the better you’ll feel each day.

Do not fear the outcome! Knowledge is power, and for the first time you are empowered with the tools to screen your mind and learn crucial information about your cognitive function. Besides, think how relieved you will be when you find out that you forget the same things the rest of us do, and are suffering no serious deficits within any of your cognitive domains! Don’t delay, screen your brain today.