Our Innovator’s Dilemma in Alzheimer’s Research and Innovation: Linking and Scaling Solutions for All

The Spring Meeting of the DAC Healthcare System Preparedness Learning Laboratory, 7 May 2025

On May 7th, 2025, the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC) Healthcare System Preparedness Learning Laboratory convened 400+ stakeholders from 60+ countries to share lessons from DAC Healthcare System Preparedness (DAC-SP) programs, which included: (1) a ground-breaking new partnership with the U.K. government, (2) active DAC-SP collaborations on-track to reach more than 70 sites worldwide by the end of 2025, and (3) the DAC-led Africa Task Force on Brain Health. Watch the recording here. 

Breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s disease diagnostics, treatment, and risk reduction have opened a new era of hope and possibility – but without action, that promise will remain out of reach. To turn scientific progress into system-wide impact, governments, healthcare systems and the global Alzheimer’s community must confront the real challenge: implementation. That means embedding clinically ready tools into care pathways, rethinking how the workforce delivers services, and ensuring innovations are accessible across diverse settings. 

Success depends on more than innovation – it requires readiness. Healthcare systems vary dramatically in structure, capacity, and need. Closing the gap between the frontiers of research and realities of patient care demands tailored, locally grounded strategies that meet healthcare systems where they are. Only by investing in these foundations can we deliver on the full potential of this historic moment for patients and families.

No single organization, system, innovator, or country can solve the Alzheimer’s challenge. We need governments to prioritize action and policy incentives, researchers who are equipped with robust, representative data, and healthcare systems who are creating strategies to move from zero to one, from one to many, from many to all – for access to interventions at population scale. DAC Healthcare System Preparedness will continue collaborating with our partners to advance these goals, share findings through our Learning Laboratory, and work together, with healthcare systems, to implement adaptable, proven solutions. 

Click here to read DAC’s full Call to Action.

SPEAKERS

•Greg Cooper
Norton Neuroscience Institute

•Zul Merali
Brain and Mind Institute, Agah Khan University

•Phyllis Ferrell
Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative

•Vaibhav Narayan
Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative

•Muthoni Gichu
Ministry of Health, Kenya

•Mie Rizig
UCL Queen square Institute of Neurology

•Ihab Hajjar
UT Southwestern Medical Center

•Elise Smith
SCAN Health Plan

•Lori Harris
Family Health Centers of Southern Indiana

•George Vradenburg
Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative

•Michale Hornbecker
Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative

•Stephanie Vyverberg
Goizueta Brain Health Institute at Emory

•Tim MacLeod
Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative