The Education Core (Core E) of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) has several overarching goals: (1) To augment mechanisms for recruiting and retaining subjects into the clinical research activities of the ADRC, and to assure that this subject population reflects the ethnic and racial diversity of the Greater Baltimore area. (2) To increase the knowledge about AD and related disorders among patients, caregivers and other community members concerning: (a) diagnosis and management of AD and related disorders, (b) age-related changes of cognition and risk factors for cognitive decline, and (c) signs and symptoms of mild cognitive impairment, and the transition to dementia. (3) To expand educational opportunities for professionals at all stages of development, including: medical students, residents, post-doctoral fellows, junior faculty and established clinicians, as well as those in allied professions, such as nursing and social work. In this context, it is especially important to develop educational opportunities for clinicians that provide care to underserved segments ofthe community. In the current funding cycle, we have utilized a set of educational principals in order to help us establish priorities, and to plan and evaluate our programs. Through the efforts of the Education Core, working with the Clinical Core, we have been able to increase minority enrollment in the Clinic Cohort from 16% to 26%. In the next funding cycle, we will aim to maintain this diverse group of subjects and to encourage their participation in projects associated with the ADRC and participate in ante-mortem autopsy approval. During the current funding cycle, the Education Core has also provided a wide variety of educational programs for the lay public and for professionals. We will continue to evaluate these programs to assure they are meeting their programmatic aims and will initiate new programs that address the mission of the ADRC and educational efforts related to AD and related disorders throughout the U.S. more broadly.
The Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) will address many of the topics important to dementia research, with a particular focus on the understanding the eariiest phases of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This approach is important if we are ultimately going to be able to diagnose and treat AD as eariy as possible. The ADRC fosters interactions among scientists who are pursuing this overarching theme.
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