The national plan to tackle Alzheimer’s disease made strides in its first year but has much more ground to cover said witnesses testifying during a hearing Wednesday before the U.S. Senate’s Special Committee on Aging.
The hearing, broadcast live online, was convened to examine what progress has been made since the national plan was introduced last year and to discuss recommendations for the future.
Donald Moulds, PhD, the acting assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services, provided testimony on the progress made since the plan was announced last spring. Efforts include:
- a number of research projects, including two clinical trials, for preventing and treating the disease;
- training of more than 10,000 doctors, nurses and direct-care workers so that these frontline workers are better able to recognize the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and provide screening and other help to patients and their families;
- grants awarded to four models of improved care for people with dementia; and
- HHS’ launch of www.alzheimers.gov - a one-stop source for families and caregivers.
“Despite all of the progress, we still have a long way to go in our fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” Moulds told the committee.
The goal of the national Alzheimer’s plan is to develop effective preventive and treatment approaches by 2025. When the plan was announced last May, the Obama administration made available an immediate $50 million for Alzheimer’s research. In the president’s proposed 2014 budget, he includes $100 million for research.
Much of the focus during the hearing centered on funding Alzheimer’s research. The advisory council of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) has said that at least $2 billion a year is needed to fund Alzheimer’s research in order to meet the 2025 goal of slowing down the progression of the disease, or finding a cure.
[See also: National Alzheimer's plan released.]
“Currently, NIH spends approximately $6 billion on cancer research, $3 billion on HIV/AIDS research and a little over $2 billion for cardiovascular disease research on an annual basis,” said Ronald Petersen, MD, PhD, chair of the Advisory Council on Research, Care and Services for NAPA. “At present, the federal budget for Alzheimer’s disease research is less than half-a-billion dollars per year. Yet Alzheimer’s disease may be the defining disease of our generation. In order to keep it from defining the next generation, it is incumbent upon us to make the appropriate investments now to enable the research community to carry out effective studies to halt this disease.”
“While we all recognize that these are very difficult times for the federal budget,” he concluded, “this is an issue that cannot wait. … it will swamp other diseases and be the single most salient condition of aging.”
In his testimony, Michael Hurd, PhD, the director of the RAND Center for the Study of Aging, referred to a recently published RAND study on the costs of dementia in which he and his colleagues estimated that the costs for care purchased in the marketplace will be $259 billion by 2040. That number increases to between $379 billion and $511 billion when the costs of informal care are included.
Given the heavy cost burden to families and the federal government, the senators expressed concern that the amount of money recommended by the advisory council and designated in the president’s proposed budget would be enough to meet the need.
“I personally am convinced that we need to more than double the amount of money that we are investing in Alzheimer’s research in order to achieve significant progress,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), ranking member of the committee and co-sponsor of NAPA, during her opening remarks.
The national Alzheimer’s plan was designed to be revised annually. The advisory council’s 2013 recommendations to HHS are completed, Moulds told the committee, and are before HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Among the recommendations is an emphasis on continuing to dedicate appropriate funds to research.
The latest iteration of the national plan should be released to the public in mid-May. The advisory council’s recommendations are available for reading on HHS’ website or here.