Public Health.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Gerontology
• Neurology

Background:

• Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) disproportionately affect African American (AA) adults, who are less often evaluated in specialized clinics.
• Federal initiatives like Building our Largest Dementia (BOLD) encourage state-level ADRD plans.
• Georgia established the Georgia Alzheimer's and Related Dementias State Plan (GARD) and funded the Georgia Memory Net (GMN) program in 2018 to create specialized memory assessment clinics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of the Georgia Memory Net (GMN) program on ADRD care access and diagnosis.
• To compare demographic data from GMN clinics with statewide Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) fee-for-service (FFS) data.

Main Methods:

• Summarized aggregated demographic, location, and diagnosis data from GMN clinics (2017-2024).
• Utilized chi-square analysis to compare GMN data with statewide CMS FFS data.

Main Results:

• GMN clinics evaluated 2,426 patients, with 81% from urban areas.
• The majority of GMN patients (55%) were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.
• GMN clinics evaluated a higher proportion of older African American adults (57%) compared to statewide CMS FFS claims (29%, p < 0.01).

Conclusions:

• Specialized memory clinics like GMN can increase access to care for high-risk populations, including older African American adults.
• GMN facilitated earlier diagnosis of cognitive impairment.
• Statewide investments in ADRD programs show potential to reduce disparities and improve early disease detection.