Dementia Paid Clinical Trials in Pennsylvania

The purpose of this study is to learn more about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other related neurodegenerative diseases, including frontotemporal dementia (FTD), primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), progressive muscular atrophy (PMA) and multisystem proteinopathy (MSP). More precisely, the investigator wants to identify the links that exist between the disease phenotype (phenotype refers to observable signs and symptoms) and the disease genotype (genotype refers to your genetic information). The investigator also wants to identify biomarkers of ALS and related diseases. Read Less

The overall goal of the DISCOVERY study is to better understand what factors contribute to changes in cognitive (i.e., thinking and memory) abilities in patients who experienced a stroke. The purpose of the study is to help doctors identify patients at risk for dementia (decline in memory, thinking and other mental abilities that significantly affects daily functioning) after their stroke so that future treatments may be developed to improve outcomes in stroke patients. For this study, a "stroke" is defined as either (1) an acute ischemic stroke (AIS, or blood clot in the brain), (2) an intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH, or bleeding in the brain), (3) or an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH, or bleeding around the brain caused by an abnormal bulge in a blood vessel that bursts). The investigators hypothesize that: 1. The size, type and location of the stroke play an important role in recovery of thinking and memory abilities after stroke, and pre-existing indicators of brain health further determine the extent of this recovery. 2. Specific stroke events occurring in individuals with underlying genetic or biological risk factors can cause further declines in brain heath, leading to changes in thinking and memory abilities after stroke. 3. Studying thinking and memory alongside brain imaging and blood samples in patients who have had a stroke allows for earlier identification of declining brain health and development of individualized treatment plans to improve patient outcomes in the future. Read Less

The purpose of the study is to test the safety and tolerability of twice daily Verdiperstat in patients with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) due to frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43 pathology (FTLD-TDP). Three-fourths of the participants will receive Verdiperstat and one-fourth will receive Placebo during the 24-week treatment duration. Read Less

The research database contains demographic and family history information, longitudinal information on the clinical symptoms, neuropsychological profile and treatments, stored biological samples, and brain images of patients with Parkinson's disease and related disorders receiving care at the Parkinson's disease and Movement Disorders Center and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Read Less

Given the expansion of indications for genetic testing and our understanding of conditions for which the results change medical management, it is imperative to consider novel ways to deliver care beyond the traditional genetic counseling visit, which are both amenable to large-scale implementation and sustainable. The investigators propose an entirely new approach for the implementation of genomic medicine, supported by the leadership of Penn Medicine, investigating the use of non-geneticist clinician and patient nudges in the delivery of genomic medicine through a pragmatic randomized clinical trial, addressing NHGRI priorities. Our application is highly conceptually and technically innovative, building upon expertise and infrastructure already in place. Innovative qualities of our proposal include: 1) Cutting edge EHR infrastructure already built to support genomic medicine (e.g., partnering with multiple commercial genetic testing laboratories for direct test ordering and results reporting in the EHR); 2) Automated EHR-based direct ordering or referring by specialist clinicians (i.e., use of replicable modules that enable specialist clinicians to order genetic testing through Epic Smartsets, including all needed components, such as populated gene lists, smartphrases, genetic testing, informational websites and acknowledgement e-forms for patient signature); 3) EHR algorithms for accurate patient identification (i.e., electronic phenotype algorithms to identify eligible patients, none of which currently have phenotype algorithms present in PheKB; 4) Behavioral economics-informed implementation science methods: This trial will be the first to evaluate implementation strategies informed by behavioral economics, directed at clinicians and/or patients, for increasing the use of genetic testing; further it will be the first study in this area to test two forms of defaults as a potential local adaptation to facilitate implementation (ordering vs. referring); and 5) Dissemination: In addition to standard dissemination modalities,PheKB95, GitHub and Epic Community Library, the investigators propose to disseminate via AnVIL (NHGRI's Genomic Data Science Analysis, Visualization, and Informatics Lab-Space). Our results will represent an entirely new paradigm for the provision of genomic medicine for patients in whom the results of genetic testing change medical management. Read Less

PREVENTABLE is a multi-center, randomized, parallel group, placebo-controlled superiority study. Participants will be randomized 1:1 to atorvastatin 40 mg or placebo. This large study conducted in community-dwelling older adults without cardiovascular disease (CVD) or dementia will demonstrate the benefit of statins for reducing the primary composite of death, dementia, and persistent disability and secondary composites including mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and cardiovascular events. Read Less

New IDEAS is an observational, open-label, longitudinal cohort study designed to address the requirements of the CED provisions of the NCD on beta-amyloid PET. Building on the initial Imaging Dementia-Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (IDEAS) study, New IDEAS will evaluate the association between amyloid PET and patient-centered outcomes in an expanded and more ethnoracially and clinically diverse group of Medicare participants presenting with cognitive impairment. Read Less

Previous clinical studies revealed that the newly developed biophoton therapy has been safe and effective in treating patients with Alzheimer's disease, dementia, stroke, traumatic brain injury, or Parkinson's disease. The current study is to confirm the previous clinical observation by conducting as a randomized, triple-blinded, placebo-controlled prospective intervention clinical research. About 80 patients with brain disorder (Alzheimer's disease, dementia, stroke, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson's disease) will participate in the intervention clinical study at the Tesla MedBed Center located in Butler, PA. Read Less