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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
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