Last Tuesday, the Cross-Party Group (CPG) on Life Sciences met to discuss Scotland’s role in bettering the outcome for patients diagnosed with dementia.
Currently, 90,000 people in Scotland suffer from various forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s Disease.
My mother and both of my grandmothers died of Alzheimers.
Professor Frank Gunn-Moore from the University of St Andrews and Professor Craig Richie from Scottish Brain Sciences discussed the importance of clinical trials to increase & expedite the understanding and treatment of dementia.
Professor Terry Quinn later discussed The Scottish Dementia Research Consortium and the importance of the academic collaboration to Scottish research that we now see, partly due to networking through our CPG.
Dementia currently costs Scotland £3 billion per year, not to mention the heartache involved for families, highlighting the need for collaborative research & investment into clinical trials.
I am delighted that the Scottish Government is in the process of establishing brain health centres across Scotland, and that we are developing globe leading research into providing effective treatments for the prevention of dementia over the next five to ten years.
