Christie Clinic’s Department of Radiology is pleased to announce their involvement in two nationwide initiatives: the Imaging Dementia Evidence for Amyloid Screening (IDEAS) Study and ACR’s Lung Cancer Screening Registry.
The Department of Radiology is now an approved participating site in the $100 million IDEAS Study (Ideas-Study.org). Christie Clinic is enrolling eligible Medicare patients in the study to determine the clinical usefulness of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of brain to identify or detect amyloid deposits in the diagnosis of patients who are being evaluated for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Diagnosing Alzheimer’s is complex. With no single test currently available, diagnosis is based on an individual’s history, physical examination and cognitive testing. Amyloid PET imaging represents a potential major advance in the assessment of those with cognitive impairment. The scan visualizes plaques present in the brain, which are prime suspects in damaging and killing nerve cells in Alzheimer's. Before amyloid PET, these plaques could only be detected by examining the brain at autopsy. The first-of-its-kind IDEAS Study will follow Medicare beneficiaries for up to four years to determine if amyloid PET scans may help doctors make more informed treatment decisions.
“There has never been a study of this scale to evaluate the clinical value of brain amyloid imaging in diagnosing and caring for those affected by Alzheimer’s. The dementia specialists and facilities that register for the IDEAS Study will play an essential role in engaging the nearly 19,000 individuals needed in the study and carrying out the amyloid PET scans,” said Maria Carrillo, PhD, Alzheimer’s Association chief science officer and IDEAS Study co-chair.
Patients cannot directly enroll in the IDEAS Study. At Christie Clinic, an IDEAS study dementia specialist, will enroll patients whose cases meet the study criteria and refer them for an amyloid PET scan. These scans will be performed and interpreted by a nuclear medicine physician or radiologist. Results will be provided to the ordering physician for disclosure to the patient and to support further diagnostic decisions. Scan results and diagnosis will be captured for the study.
The IDEAS Study is sponsored by the American College of Radiology (ACR) and American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN), with funding and direction provided by the Alzheimer’s Association, the ACR and the manufacturers of the FDA-approved radiopharmaceuticals for amyloid imaging.
For more information or to refer patients for evaluation for enrollment in the IDEAS study, contact Christie Clinic’s Department of Neurology at 217.366.1266.
Christie Clinic’s Department of Radiology is now participating in the American College of Radiology (ACR) Lung Cancer Screening Registry. Participation in the registry is voluntary and allows our imaging facility to compare its lung cancer screening performance to other facilities nationwide. Our doctors and staff can use these objective comparisons to advance our lung cancer screening practice, target specific areas for improvement, implement quality improvement programs, and improve patient care.
The ACR Lung Cancer Screening Registry (LCSR) is approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to meet Medicare quality reporting requirements. As part of the ACR National Radiology Data Registry (NRDR®), the LCSR leads the effort in developing benchmarks and comparisons to help imaging facilities improve quality of patient care.