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Annual Report 2017 37
An exciting initiative during 2017 has
been the establishment of our Dementia
Prevention Research Clinics (DPRCs) in
mid-2017 as part of our involvement in the
national collaboration, Brain Research
New Zealand (BRNZ) Centre of Research
Excellence.
his clinic is based at the NZBRI and is recruiting people with
T mild cognitive impairment (MCI). People with MCI have a
50% risk of ultimately developing dementia, especially Alzheimer’s
Dementia. Participants in this research clinic undergo extensive
assessment, including detailed cognition testing, MRI and amyloid
PET brain scans, and have blood samples stored in a biobank for
later analysis and, we hope, discovery of new markers.
Our clinic volunteers are then reassessed regularly for any
changes in thinking and memory, and follow-up brain scans and
blood tests. The aim of these DPRCs is to find and test new therapies
to help prevent and treat dementia. The multidisciplinary clinic is
staffed by nurse coordinator Marie Goulden RN, Neuropsychologist
Dr Karelia Levin, Psychologist Prof John Dalrymple-Alford,
Geriatrician Dr John Elliot, Neurology Fellow Dr Purwa Joshi,
and Neurologist Prof Tim Anderson, along with Dr Toni Pitcher
responsible for blood sampling and Dr Tracy Melzer for the MRI and
PET brain scans. We have just farewelled Dr Joshi but are pleased
to welcome Neurologist Dr Campbell Le Heron onto the clinic team.
We already have over ten people participating in our clinic with an
expected number of some fifty recruited per year.
The NZBRI is excited to host two young and energetic research-
minded neurologists who have joined the CDHB Neurology
Department. Dr Teddy Wu arrived early in 2017. Teddy has special
expertise and research interests in Stroke and undertook his PhD