Columbus, Ga. Study Aims To Test All Seniors For Alzheimer’s
Cognitive memory tests, similar to the one pictured here in Ohio in 2012, are part of an Alzheimer’s clinical trial effort underway in Columbus, Ga., that seeks to screen all citizens 55 and older.
Jay Laprete / Associated Press
There’s an initiative underway in Columbus, Ga., to become the first city in the world to test all of its senior citizens for Alzheimer’s Disease.
Neurologist Jonathan Liss is leading a three-year study and said about 40,000 people in Columbus are eligible to take part.
“I don’t think at this moment you could do this in Atlanta or do this in Los Angeles, it’s just too big a population,” said Liss, of the Columbus Memory Center. “But in a place like Columbus, Georgia, where the population is roughly 200,000 or so, there is not more than two degrees of separation between anybody in Columbus, Georgia and anybody else.”
The City of Columbus has committed to helping get the word out about the initiative, called the Columbus Memory Project, with public service announcements to reach everyone in Columbus 55 and older.
“We know the bio-markers and with different medications we can find a cure, but it takes people being involved being willing to be in the clinical trials in order to get there,” said Ginny Helms of the Georgia Alzheimer’s Association.
Everyone who signs up will get a free memory test and the chance to volunteer for U.S. Food and Drug Administration clinical trials.
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