Collaboration in Action: Unified Alzheimer Therapeutics Program
Across Mass General Brigham, we are working to create single, unified departments that operate seamlessly for the benefit of our patients, people, and the communities we serve. In neurology, experts from across our organization are coming together to enhance patient access and care for more patients with leading-edge treatments.
Building on successful collaborations like a unified patient access center, neurology experts at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have developed a combined Alzheimer Therapeutics Program (ATP), which recently reached a major milestone celebrating 1,000 lecanemab infusions, after beginning infusions last December.
Collaboration is key
The ATP’s success in bringing the latest treatment options to our patients is thanks to the commitment to collaboration across our AMCs. Every week, clinicians from both campuses meet to review cases.
Together, neurologists, psychiatrists, neuroradiologists, and advanced practice providers (nurse practitioners and physician assistants) who see patients make decisions regarding eligibility for treatment, review instances of side effects related to treatment, and discuss other aspects of patient care.
During a smaller weekly meeting, program leaders meet to discuss logistical aspects of the program, including planning, maximizing infusion capacity, and addressing questions that have come up.
With the establishment of standard protocols and operations resulting from this collaboration, patients benefit from a seamless experience across the organization. Infusions are offered at MGH, BWH, and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital (BWFH), meaning patients can choose the location that is most convenient for them. MRI monitoring is also standardized across the system, allowing patients to have their scans at any MGB imaging center.
“It has been amazing to see everyone, including our radiology and infusion colleagues, come together for the benefit of our patients,” says Liliana Ramirez Gomez, MD, a neurologist at MGH and a member of the ATP. “There is a true sense of camaraderie as we all work toward a common goal to improve quality of life by offering the latest treatment options with patient safety at the core of all we do. I hope that we can serve as an example for other service lines of what can be accomplished when you work as one.”
Research update
The pioneering work of Mass General Brigham researchers is what brought treatments like lecanemab and donanemab to market in the first place. More than 30 years ago, Dennis J. Selkoe, MD, co-director of the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, made history with his research on beta-amyloid and Alzheimer disease. His work, later built upon by Reisa Sperling, MD, and Gad Marshall, MD, from the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment, was just the start of what would become a decades-long commitment by researchers to improve the lives of patients living with Alzheimer disease and those who care for them.
Today, Dr. Selkoe and his team are able to study the patients benefiting from the treatments their research helped to develop.
“It is a culmination of a life’s work,” he says. “I had the pleasure of speaking with one of our first lecanemab patients recently. After nearly a year of treatment, I can sense the benefit. To me, there was no noticeable cognitive or verbal decline from our earlier meeting. That means it is working. We are now focused on the science, collecting data to prove what we have seen anecdotally.”