Empowering healthier aging for all

Imagine a world where screening for Alzheimer's disease is as routine as a colonoscopy or mammogram. Far from a dreaded test that confirms an inevitable decline, it's an empowering tool that arms patients with knowledge so they can act when their actions can have the greatest impact on their future health. 

This isn't a far-off dream. It's the future we are working to create.

Breaking the cycle of acceptance

Our cultural understanding of aging assumes cognitive decline is more or less a foregone conclusion. We see our loved ones showing early symptoms—forgetting names, misplacing items, struggling with familiar tasks—and we resign ourselves to what seems like the natural course of events. 

This belief that cognitive decline is inevitable runs deep. A 2024 survey reported in the World Alzheimer Report found that 65% of health care professionals and 80% of the general public believe dementia is a normal part of aging. But while mild cognitive changes like slower processing speed or occasional forgetfulness are considered a normal part of aging, dementia and more severe cognitive decline are not. 

For too long, we've learned to accept cognitive decline as simply an indignity of aging. But we do have another option: to approach cognitive changes with the same investigation, education and intervention we bring to other health concerns. When it comes to Alzheimer's disease, acting early – including early diagnosis and potential treatment – can significantly impact disease progression and quality of life.

Precision diagnosis for precision treatment 

The treatment landscape for Alzheimer’s is already widening dramatically. Where previously we were limited to unproven lifestyle interventions like diet, exercise and intellectual stimulation, now we have targeted treatments.

Every day, our disease-fighting capabilities more closely resemble precision oncology. The pipeline of therapeutics is expanding to a wider variety of targets, meaning we will soon have a library of options to treat more kinds of disease with greater precision. AI-driven insights are deepening our understanding of the biology of Alzheimer’s even further, setting the stage for even more targeted therapeutic options in the coming years. Targeted therapeutics need diagnostics that can match their precision. A true precision diagnosis will do more than prompt a therapeutic intervention—it will also point us toward the right kind of therapy for each unique patient, as well as monitor how well the therapy is working and how long patients need to stay on the treatment to see results. Precision diagnostics can also speed the development of these new precision drugs, just as it has with oncology. 

Like many cancer drugs, these new medications are not easy drugs to take, so the more we can help patients get the right treatment at the right moment, the better poised we are to help make their lives meaningfully better. 

The accessibility imperative

At the heart of this paradigm shift in testing for Alzheimer's is accessibility. Even the most transformative diagnostic tools cannot help patients if they are only available in specialized centers, require complex procedures or come with prohibitive costs. We need Alzheimer's diagnostics that meet patients where they are—in their regular lives and where they get their regular medical care. 

That’s why our industry is investing heavily in developing non-invasive, blood-based tests for complex neurodegenerative diseases. Recent breakthroughs—like Beckman Coulter's blood test receiving FDA Breakthrough Device designation and the Washington University-Beacon collaboration—suggest we're on the cusp of making this vision reality.

These advancements aren't just scientifically significant; they're transformative for patients. They promise testing that is less invasive, more affordable and capable of earlier detection when interventions can make the greatest impact. 

Perhaps most powerfully, an accessible blood-based test will help erase the stigma that often accompanies cognitive assessments. Just as we've normalized other health screenings by emphasizing their life-saving potential, a routine and accessible Alzheimer’s test can become a simple and critical information-gathering step.

Empowering, not frightening

When diagnostic innovation puts patients first—considering their experience, their access and their agency—we create tools that truly serve human health. The more knowledge patients and their families have, the easier it will be for them to take steps to proactively delay the onset of disease for more symptom-free or symptom-managed years.

By putting patients and their families first as we innovate precision diagnostics, we can begin to change the narrative around Alzheimer's from one of inevitable decline to one of empowered choices and hopeful possibilities.