Optimizing patient care and research: the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort

Since its opening in 2000, patient care and research go hand in hand at the Alzheimer center of the VU University Medical Center, both organized in such a way that they mutually strengthen each other. Our mission is to give patients a voice by lifting the stigma on dementia, to find new diagnostic and treatment strategies, and, ultimately, to cure diseases that cause dementia. Our healthcare pathway is uniquely designed to accommodate all necessary investigations for the diagnostic work-up of dementia in one day (one-stop shop). A second unique feature is that research has been fully integrated in the healthcare pathway. The resulting Amsterdam Dementia Cohort now includes over 4000 patients, and for the majority of these, we have MRI, EEG, blood (serum, plasma), DNA, and CSF available. The Amsterdam Dementia Cohort forms the basis of much of our research, which focuses on four major research lines: 1) variability in manifestation, 2) early diagnosis, 3) vascular factors, and 4) interventions. By answering research questions closely related to clinical practice, the results of our research can be looped back to improve clinical work-up for our patients.