The American College of Radiology (ACR) in collaboration with the Alzheimer's Association is launching a new research study that will show the value of brain PET scans for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease across a diverse patient population.
The study, called New IDEAS: Imaging Dementia -- Evidence for Amyloid Scanning, will explore whether brain amyloid PET scans help clinicians offer more accurate diagnoses of dementia as well as improve patients' treatment plans. It builds on the original IDEAS study that began in 2016, and it will be supported by Eli Lilly, GE Healthcare, and Life Molecular Imaging.
The ACR plans to include 7,000 Medicare beneficiaries who meet the criteria for mild cognitive impairment or dementia in the research; of these, 4,000 will be Black and Latinx, groups that have been historically underrepresented in dementia research. Participants will be recruited over 30 to 36 months at 350 sites across the U.S.
Participation in the study is currently the only way a Medicare beneficiary can undergo a brain amyloid PET scan, according to the ACR. More information is available on the project's website.
