Obstacles and opportunities in Alzheimer's clinical trial recruitment.

The 2012 National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease set an ambitious goal: to both prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer's disease by 2025. To reach this goal, tens of thousands of volunteers will be needed to participate in clinical trials to test promising new interventions and therapies. To mobilize these volunteers and their health care providers to participate in future clinical trials, it will be necessary to achieve a better understanding of the barriers keeping people from participating in Alzheimer's research; form innovative partnerships among researchers, health care and social service providers, and the public; and develop more-effective outreach strategies. In this article we explore recruitment issues, including those unique to Alzheimer's studies, and we suggest concrete steps such as establishing a structured consortium linking all of the registries of Alzheimer's trials and establishing new partnerships with community and local organizations that can build trust and understanding among patients, caregivers, and providers.

Eyes on the prize: federal Alzheimer's research effort aims to facilitate interventions.

The public Alzheimer's disease (AD) research enterprise began in earnest in the mid-1970s with the creation by Congress of the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health. Today, AD research is a maturing field of study, with federal effort seeking to encourage the creativity and insights of individual investigators, and targeting special areas for emphasis. It is inspired by the legacy of our friend and colleague Leon Thal, whose innovative and collaborative approach to scientific research serves as a guidepost as we move toward the discovery of new and effective ways to prevent AD or slow its progression. This article describes the progress to date and potentially promising areas of study from the vantage point of the National Institute on Aging.