Weeks after collaborating with a company to develop technology to detect Alzheimer’s, a University of Minnesota professor has taken it upon himself to compile the information on disease across the state.
As a part of his plan, Joseph Gaugler, a professor at the university’s School of Public Health, will visit 87 counties across the state of Minnesota and provide information on “dementia care.”
“I’m not sure how long it will take,” Gaungler told Star Tribune. “But I wanted to visit all the counties in Minnesota — talk to people, learn their experiences about memory loss and share with them new insights about dementia and dementia care.”
According to Alzheimer’s Association chapter for Minnesota and North Dakota, close to 100,000 people across the state live with the disease.
The latest development comes weeks after the university and Canada based RetiSpec, a medical imaging company on October 17 entered in a licensing agreement to develop technology that will early detect the Alzheimer’s disease.
“This is the first diagnostic method developed to detect signs of Alzheimer’s well before plaques form in the brain and patients begin to exhibit the outwardly observable symptoms of this devastating disease, such as disorientation and memory loss,” said Vince, CDD director and professor of pharmacy.
“We are excited by the potential early detection holds in giving existing treatments the best chance of success and opening the doors to the development of new drug therapies.”
The university is also working on a project wherein the researchers are examining how individuals from diverse ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds overcoming disparities in care by viewing the potential of precision treatment in dementia.