What if we could put an end to Alzheimer’s disease before another generation is lost?

Banner Health to open world-class Alzheimer’s Institute for research, care

PHOENIX (March 2006) – In 2006, Banner Health will establish the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute (BAI) in Phoenix under the direction of Eric Reiman, M.D., and Pierre Tariot, M.D., both internationally recognized for their ground-breaking Alzheimer’s disease research. The Institute’s mission is to help end Alzheimer’s disease without losing a generation, to set a new standard of care for patients and families, and to continue to support Arizona’s leading model of statewide collaboration in biomedical research.

BAI will be comprised of a memory disorders clinic, family and community services program, a clinical trials program, cutting-edge brain imaging, and genomics research in partnership with the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). It will open in phases this year, but will be fully operational for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and their families by October. BAI will be located on the campus of Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center.
 
“The Banner Alzheimer’s Institute is intended to make a real difference in the lives of people who have Alzheimer’s disease or have a family member who is suffering from it, not only here in Arizona but around the world,” said Banner Health President and CEO Peter S. Fine. “We believe that it will provide a model of care, that it will hasten the discovery of effective ways to treat and ultimately prevent Alzheimer’s, and that it will play a key role in Arizona’s emergence as a major bioscience center,” he added.

The BAI team and its colleagues have previously made a number of major scientific and clinical contributions in this area including:

• Developing imaging techniques with improved power to study the structure and functions of the living human brain.
• Adding to research that allows us to understand the human brain’s involvement in normal memory, emotion and other behaviors.
• Characterizing brain changes in healthy people at risk for Alzheimer’s, decades before the possible onset of memory and thinking problems.
• Conducting Alzheimer’s treatment studies that led to the U.S Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the currently available medications.
• Participating in the launch of one of the first treatment studies to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
• The development and use of quicker and more powerful ways to identify disease-slowing and prevention therapies for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease using imaging techniques in clinical trials.

“The Banner Alzheimer’s Institute is specifically designed to find disease-stopping treatments in the shortest possible time, and to identify ways to actually prevent Alzheimer’s disease without having to lose a generation,” said Dr. Reiman. “To accomplish these goals, we will capitalize on the Institute’s remarkable strengths in brain imaging and clinical trials research, TGen’s remarkable strengths in genomics research, and the partnerships we have forged in the Arizona Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium. The Institute is also intended to address many of the medical and non-medical needs of our patients and their families to the fullest extent possible.”

Dr. Reiman will be the Executive Director of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute. His other appointments include Clinical Director of the Neurogenomics Division at TGen, Professor and Associate Head of Psychiatry for the Phoenix campus of the University of Arizona Colleague of Medicine, and Director of the Arizona Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium. Supported by both the state and the NIH, the Consortium has become the nation’s leading model of statewide collaboration in Alzheimer’s disease research.

Dr. Reiman has been joined in his work by Dr. Tariot, a distinguished Alzheimer’s disease specialist and researcher. Dr. Tariot, now Associate Director of the Institute, is known for his expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. He is also recognized as a leader in the evaluation of investigational treatments for the memory and thinking problems caused by Alzheimer’s disease, and related behavioral problems like agitation and sleeplessness. He comes to Banner Health from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. His efforts have helped advance treatment for millions of patients around the globe. The Arizona-based Institute for Mental Health Research was instrumental in opening the dialogue with Dr. Tariot that resulted in his joining BAI and the Arizona research community.

Tariot will direct the Institute’s Memory Disorders Clinic, Family and Community Services program and Clinical Trials Center. The patient and family programs are intended to provide a model for the medical and non-medical care of patients. The Institute’s clinical trials program will be available to selected patients from the Memory Disorders Clinic, as well as others who have been referred to the program by area physicians.

It is anticipated that many of the clinical trials will employ imaging strategies pioneered at Banner. Some of the studies will capitalize on the discovery of new genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease, which are currently being sought by Dietrich Stephan, PhD., Director of TGen’s Neurogenomics Division, and Director of the BAI’s Translational Genomics Program. Other studies will benefit from the Institute’s collaboration with its outstanding partners in the Arizona Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium. The goal of the Institute’s research program is to help find effective ways to treat and prevent Alzheimer’s disease in the shortest possible time.

According to Reiman, “The Institute would not be possible without Banner’s remarkable commitment, the collaborative spirit of our partners in the Arizona Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium, the support the Consortium continues to receive from Arizona’s elected officials, and the help we have received from those who share our commitment to ending this devastating disorder.”

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of disabling memory and thinking problems in older people and the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. It afflicts 10 percent of everyone over the age of 65 and almost half of everyone over the age of 85. In its relentless course, this brain disorder gradually robs individuals of their memory, their judgment and reasoning, their language skills, their ability to recognize familiar faces, and their ability to perform routine tasks. In addition to its catastrophic effect on patients, Alzheimer’s disease typically takes an enormous physical, emotional, and financial toll on their families and the communities in which they live.

Partners in research:
Based in Phoenix, Banner Health is one of the largest, not-for-profit health care systems in the country. In the communities we serve – from Alaska to Arizona – Banner Health has more experience caring for patients than any other organization. We proudly believe this experience helps us realize our mission: We exist to make a difference in people’s lives through excellent patient care.

The Arizona Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium is a statewide laboratory without walls dedicated to the scientific study, early detection, and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. It includes more than 100 researchers from eight Arizona institutions, including Banner Health, the Sun Health Research Institute, the Barrow Neurological Institute, the Mayo Clinic, the Translational Genomics Research Institute, the Southern Arizona Veterans Administration Medical Center, Arizona State University and the University of Arizona. In includes the state-supported Arizona Alzheimer’s Research Center and the National Institute on Aging sponsored Arizona Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center. It has capitalized on strong working relationships with leading community organizations, like the Alzheimer’s Association’s Desert Southwest Chapter and Hospice of the Valley.

The Institute for Mental Health Research (IMHR) is an innovative foundation developed to improve the mental health of Arizonans by fostering recruitment of scientists with expertise in the study and treatment of mental disorders. IMHR is the nation’s first comprehensive statewide research initiative dedicated to accelerating the understanding, treatment and, ultimately, prevention of brain diseases that cause mental illness through collaborations with the state’s leading educational, research and medical institutions.

Contact:
Paul Mathews, BAI Public Relations Manager
(602) 239-6907
E-mail