Research Area
Aging

Grant Type
Network

Year
2015

Abstract

The overall goal of The Hillblom California Brain Health Registry Network is to facilitate the recruitment, screening, and assessment of brain function and disease in older adults using the Brain Health Registry (BHR), an internet-based registry that currently has almost 58,000 registrants. By achieving this goal, the project will accelerate the development of new treatments for age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases. The project addresses 2 major problems: the lack of quick and efficient methods for testing brain functioning in older adults, and the lack of efficient recruitment methods for drug trials. Both problems will be addressed by recruiting a large group of people online and collecting: 1) self-report health, lifestyle, memory, and family history; 2) online memory tests; 3) genetic data; 4) study partner-reported information about participants, collected using a novel online tool called the Caregiver and Study Partner Portal. The data will be shared broadly with scientific collaborators throughout CA. We will leverage resources of an existing website, which provides a low cost, scalable infrastructure to recruit and monitor brain health in a very large number of people. The long-term impact is better healthcare for older adults and faster development of new treatments for brain diseases, in line with the Hillblom Foundation mission to target the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of age-related brain diseases.