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Alzheimer's Center of Excellence

Definition: An Alzheimer’s Center of Excellence is a clinic offering high standards of care and support for individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. 

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Alzheimer’s Centers of Excellence combine clinical expertise, to help people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. These centers integrate clinical research findings, perhaps contribute to clinical research.  They use disease modifying drugs in appropriate patients with speed and safety. 

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How to Become anAlzheimer's Center of Excellence: AQI.INFORMATION@GMAIL.COM

The Certification process for becoming an Alzheimer's Center of Excellence will have you meet rigorous standards, external validation, and demonstrated ongoing impact. Here’s a refined outline with real-world parallels and best practices:

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Key Components of a Certification Process

1. See something say something. Can your site name the disease? 

  • Do the doctors diagnose Alzheimer’s and disclose?  

2. “Door to needle.”  Time is brain. So what is the time between "My spouse has memory loss" and first dose of AAT? 

  • Time needed to get clinical diagnosis and stage, disclosure, imaging, BW and APOE, then biomarker confirmation.  

    • What is this process?  

  • At this point, time should be less than 90 days.  

  • Cases over 90 days should have documentation for delay (indecision among family and patient, insurance delay for biomarker, lack of follow up, unstable medical conditions, or other assorted chaos.)

  • Slower centers require identification of barriers and delays. 

3.  Number of people dosed compared with your local community

  • Best way to capture the impact of a clinic, doctor, on the disease within the population they serve.   

4. Safety, monitoring, system in place for dosing. What is the system in place for ensuring compliance with: 

  • Appropriate use (not dosing people with 20 microhemes)

  • MRI monitoring

  • Regular clinic visits

  • PRN problems with disease, caregivers, IRRs

5. Symptomatic mgmt.  Eval for n-psych features. Use of SSRIs for anxiety, depression. 

  • ACHE-I in general, not for MCI. 

  • Memantine for late disease. 

  • Brexpiprazole for FDA approved and appropriate agitation use.  

  • Reluctance to use benzos, neuroleptics, and anti-seizure drugs in general for N-psych problems.  

  • Knowledge about and checking for anti-cholinergics. 

6. Ongoing Performance Monitoring & Improvement

7. Upon certification, allow Centers to display:

  • An official “Center of Excellence” seal. 

  • Staff credentialing as AQI-certified professionals.

  • Accreditation status clearly on public materials and digital platforms.

  • Welcome, listed as an AD center of excellence, invited to a webinar to share difficult cases.  

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