Criteria for Psychosis in Major and Mild Neurocognitive Disorders: International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA) Consensus Clinical and Research Definition.

Psychosis is common among individuals with neurocognitive disorders, is difficult to manage, and causes considerable burden and stress to patients and caregivers. Developing effective treatments is a substantial unmet medical need but research has been slowed by the need for updated consensus diagnostic criteria. To address this need, the International Psychogeriatrics Association initiated a process to develop criteria for clinical use, research, and treatment development efforts. The process included clinical, regulatory, and industry stakeholders as well as input from a global network of experts in geriatric psychiatry responding to two surveys (N = 336). Results from the consensus process confirmed that clinicians wanted elaboration of aspects of the definition proposed by Jeste and Finkel in 2000 to ensure that the criteria are applied appropriately. Based on discussions, the survey, and emerging research, criteria were revised to apply to psychosis occurring with all major and mild neurocognitive disorders. Other important changes include providing examples of hallucinations and delusions and clarifying time course, impact, and exclusionary criteria. This definition of psychosis in major and mild neurocognitive disorders can be used to advance many types of research including development of much needed pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions for psychosis in patients with neurocognitive disorders.

Improving dementia care: the role of screening and detection of cognitive impairment.

The value of screening for cognitive impairment, including dementia and Alzheimer's disease, has been debated for decades. Recent research on causes of and treatments for cognitive impairment has converged to challenge previous thinking about screening for cognitive impairment. Consequently, changes have occurred in health care policies and priorities, including the establishment of the annual wellness visit, which requires detection of any cognitive impairment for Medicare enrollees. In response to these changes, the Alzheimer's Foundation of America and the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation convened a workgroup to review evidence for screening implementation and to evaluate the implications of routine dementia detection for health care redesign. The primary domains reviewed were consideration of the benefits, harms, and impact of cognitive screening on health care quality. In conference, the workgroup developed 10 recommendations for realizing the national policy goals of early detection as the first step in improving clinical care and ensuring proactive, patient-centered management of dementia.

Priorities for Patient-Centered Research in Valvular Heart Disease: A Report From the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Working Group.

Over the past decade, the field of valvular heart disease (VHD) has rapidly transformed, largely as a result of the development and improvement of less invasive transcatheter approaches to valve repair or replacement. This transformation has been supported by numerous well-designed randomized trials, but they have centered almost entirely on devices and procedures. Outside this scope of focus, however, myriad aspects of therapy and management for patients with VHD have either no guidelines or recommendations based only on expert opinion and observational studies. Further, research in VHD has often failed to engage patients to inform study design and identify research questions of greatest importance and relevance from a patient perspective. Accordingly, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute convened a Working Group on Patient-Centered Research in Valvular Heart Disease, composed of clinician and research experts and patient advocacy experts to identify gaps and barriers to research in VHD and identify research priorities. While recognizing that important research remains to be done to test the safety and efficacy of devices and procedures to treat VHD, we intentionally focused less attention on these areas of research as they are more commonly pursued and supported by industry. Herein, we present the patient-centered research gaps, barriers, and priorities in VHD and organized our report according to the "patient journey," including access to care, screening and diagnosis, preprocedure therapy and management, decision making when a procedure is contemplated (clinician and patient perspectives), and postprocedure therapy and management. It is hoped that this report will foster collaboration among diverse stakeholders and highlight for funding bodies the pressing patient-centered research gaps, opportunities, and priorities in VHD in order to produce impactful patient-centered research that will inform and improve patient-centered policy and care.

The Real-World Medicare Costs of Alzheimer Disease: Considerations for Policy and Care.

BACKGROUND: Headlines in popular media suggest that Alzheimer disease will bankrupt the Medicare program. Indeed, Alzheimer disease affects more than 5 million older Medicare beneficiaries. OBJECTIVE: To compare total Medicare-covered (allowed) costs of patients with Alzheimer disease with the risk adjusted costs of beneficiaries without dementia over their last years of life, using claims data. METHODS: Using the Medicare 5 Percent Limited Data Set claim files from 2006-2015, we conducted a cost impact analysis of costs for up to 8 years before the year of death. Risk adjustment was performed at a beneficiary level using Medicare's 2015 Hierarchical Condition Categories. Beneficiaries were classified into dementia categories based on their diagnoses during the last 3 years of life. Costs were trend adjusted to 2015. RESULTS: This study found that 40% of deceased beneficiaries have Alzheimer disease or unspecified dementia diagnoses in their claims history. In their last 9 years of life, Alzheimer disease added about 11% to the average $17,000 per year Medicare cost for same-risk beneficiaries without dementia. CONCLUSIONS: Like many diseases, Alzheimer disease and dementia are associated with aging, but unlike other diseases, families and Medicaid, rather than Medicare, bear most of the substantial cost burden. As research continues into Alzheimer treatments, it is not too early to consider how to better integrate Medicare and Medicaid to fund and improve patient outcomes, which will likely involve better diagnosis, treatment, and care coordination. DISCLOSURES: Funding for this project was provided by the Alliance for Aging Research, which received funding from Biogen, Eli Lilly, and Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Peschin and Jenkins are employed by the Alliance for Aging Research. Scott was employed by the Alliance for Aging Research at the time of this study and also reports consulting fees from Piramal Imaging, General Electric, and Allergan, outside of this study. Scott is chair of the Board of Directors for the Alliance for Aging Research, which is a volunteer position, and is also president of Applied Policy, a health policy and reimbursement consultancy. Pyenson and Steffens are employed by Milliman, which was contracted to work on this study. Goss Sawhney and Rotter were employed by Milliman at the time this work was performed. Milliman is a consultant to thousands of organizations in the health care industry.

Findings from the National Memory Screening Day program.

OBJECTIVES: To report experience with a large, nation-wide public memory screening program. DESIGN: Descriptive study of community-dwelling elderly adults. SETTING: Local community sites (48 sites agreed to provide data) throughout the United States participating in National Memory Screening Day in November 2010. PARTICIPANTS: Of 4,369 reported participants, 3,064 had complete data records and are included in this report. MEASUREMENTS: Participants completed a questionnaire that included basic demographic information and a question about subjective memory concerns. Each site selected one of seven validated cognitive screening tests: Mini-Cog, General Practitioner assessment of Cognition, Memory Impairment Screen, Kokmen Short Test of Mental Status, Mini-Mental State Examination, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Saint Louis University Mental Status Examination. RESULTS: Overall, 11.7% failed one of the seven screening tests. As expected, failure rates were higher in older and less-educated participants (P's < .05). Subjective memory concerns were associated with a 40% greater failure rate for persons of similar age and education but no memory concerns (odds ratio = 1.4, 95% confidence interval = 1.07-1.78), although only 11.9% of those who reported memory concerns (75% of all participants) had detectible memory problems. CONCLUSION: Screening for cognitive impairment in community settings yielded results consistent with expected effects of age and education. The event attracted a large proportion of individuals with memory concerns; 88.1% were told that they did not have memory problems detectible with the tests used. Further studies are needed to assess how participants respond to and use screening information, whether this information ultimately influences decision-making or outcomes, and whether memory screening programs outside healthcare settings have public health value.