Scotland’s largest annual dementia conference (Friday 8 June, EICC, Edinburgh) will see the official launch of the newly created Scottish Brain Health Register. The register is led by the Scottish Dementia Informatics Platform (part of the Scottish Dementia Research Consortium) and supported by Alzheimer Scotland.
The Alzheimer Scotland conference held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) for the third consecutive year, is the flagship event of Scotland’s Dementia Awareness Week (4-10 June), setting out the latest in dementia policy, practice and research.
The Scottish Dementia Informatics Platform will bring together data from multiple sources to help healthcare professionals to provide the right treatments, at the right time, to the right person with dementia and the Scottish Brain Health Register is a key component of this work.
The project will gather data from volunteers initially at NHS Lothian with plans in place to bring onboard NHS Tayside, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Grampian. It is planned that the new register will be used in all memory services across Scotland by 2022, as a key resource to sign up volunteers to appropriate studies.
Henry Simmons, Chief Executive of Alzheimer Scotland, welcomed the register: “It is absolutely vital to support dementia research, so we might better understand dementia, improve standards of care, and work towards delaying or preventing the condition. This is Scotland’s most pressing public health issue. We desperately need volunteers, both people who have a diagnosis and those who do not, to participate in crucial studies into brain health and dementia.”
Professor Craig Ritchie from the Scottish Dementia Research Consortium (SDRC) and lead on the new Scottish Brain Health Register, said: “There are several excellent ways already in place for people to get involved in research in Scotland. The Scottish Brain Health Register is a specific and targeted way to complement these for care and prevention research in all types and stages of dementia.”
For further information about how to get involved contact CDPReferrals@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk or call 0131 650 6794.
