Projects
RADAR-AD
Collaborative research that explores the potential of mobile and digital technologies to improve the assessment of Alzheimer’s Disease
Latest project updates
- Welcome to the sixth issue of our e-newsletter
- RADAR-AD investigator speaks about digital biomarkers in personalized healthcare at the Luxembourg Center for Systems Biomedicine
- Chris Roberts, member of the RADAR-AD Patient Advisory Board, and chair of the European Working Group of People with Dementia, speaks at a session on patient involvement
The RADAR-AD project aims to develop new ways of monitoring the progression of early Alzheimer’s disease using wearable devices and smartphone technology. Such widely available devices can reveal a patient’s condition remotely, at previously unachievable levels of detail, in a continuous fashion. RADAR-AD is a project consortium of 16 partners that includes industrial and academic partners from Europe and the US.
7.4 M
funding from IMI, EFPIA
16
partners in Europe and the US
About RADAR-AD
RADAR-AD (Remote Assessment of Disease And Relapse – Alzheimer’s Disease) is jointly led by King’s College London and Janssen Pharmaceutica, with funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and in-kind contributions from industrial partners.
It is RADAR-AD’s vision to radically improve the assessment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the care for people living with Alzheimer’s. We aim to do so by exploring how mobile technologies – such as smart phones, wearables and home-based sensors – can be used to measure disability progression associated with AD.
These technologies allow us to sensitively measure cognitive and functional decline in people with AD. However, it is currently unclear how we can use this potential to improve AD assessment and care – which is exactly what we are trying find out.
In this project, we aim to investigate how mobile technologies can improve our understanding of AD. For example, these techniques might help to detect AD earlier in people with cognitive decline. Mobile technology also allows for a more personalized approach to AD treatment and care, so that people with this disease can live independently for longer. In addition, we also aim to identify “digital biomarkers” (electronic signals that give information about a person’s health status) for AD. This creates new perspectives for the development of treatments against this progressive and debilitating condition.
Lygature in RADAR-AD
Providing multi-disciplinary partnership management, communications, patient engagement and regulatory expertise
- Program management. Lygature is a member of the project’s Management Team. Together with partner Janssen, Lygature coordinates this large and multi-disciplinary program on a day-to-day basis. Activities include monitoring the effective execution of the work plan and its progress, creation and alignment of work processes, resource management and internal communication.
- Communication and Dissemination. Lygature leads the Communication and Dissemination work package in RADAR-AD. Lygature provides the backbone for knowledge sharing and is responsible for the design and development of the public website, as well as a visual identity for the project. Our goal is to raise public and scientific awareness of remote assessment of disease and relapse in early Alzheimer’s disease and to disseminate our results to the scientific community and the general public in the most efficient way. We do this through regular communication on our website, social media channels and public outreach on scientific and non-scientific events through targeted campaigns and presentations.
- Communication with regulatory authorities, patient associations, payers and ethics boards. The project is also exploring new territory regarding the rules, regulations, patient needs and ethical challenges associated with mobile technology and health. In RADAR-AD, we have the expertise on board to address these often complex conundrums. For example, the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board brings their regulatory knowledge to the table, and Alzheimer Europe ensures that the patient voice is being heard. As Lygature, we contribute by functioning as an independent broker between these different stakeholders. We stimulate, organize, facilitate conversations between the consortium and external parties, such as regulators, patient associations, and ethics specialists.
The contribution made by Lygature to RADAR-AD is an example of how cross-disciplinary expertise built up during major projects can be applied in new areas.
Lygature together with
King’s College London, VU University Medical Centre, The Hyve, University of Oxford, Karolinska Institutet, College ter Beoordeling van Geneesmiddelen / Medical Evaluation Board, Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing, Alzheimer Europe, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Takeda Development Centre Europe Ltd, Novartis Pharma AG, Eli Lilly, Software AG, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Altoida AG
Acknowledgement of support
RADAR-AD receives funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 806999. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA. See www.imi.europa.eu for more details.
Project updates
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RADAR-AD represented at 31st Alzheimer Europe conference “Resilience in dementia: Moving beyond the COVID-19 pandemic”, 29th November-1st December 2021
RADAR-AD researchers Marijn Muurling from Amsterdam UMC, Sajini Kuruppu from King’s College London and Thanos Stavropoulos from the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas represented RADAR-AD at the 31st Alzheimer Europe conference which took place online last week. They spoke about the research in RADAR-AD, the set-up of the clinical study and its ambitions , as well as the selection of functional domains and devices for the project. Among the audience for RADAR-AD’s virtual booth were patients and carers, academics and clinicians.
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RADAR-AD includes 100th participant in the clinical study
On the 22nd of October the RADAR-AD participating clinical center in Stavanger (Norway) included the 100th participant in the study! RADAR-AD participants share that they are happy to participate in the clinical study: they find the cognitive tasks challenging but also fun since they feel like a “brain training” for them. The RADAR-AD consortium is proud to report a low drop-out rate and high number of participants who have completed their participation in the study.
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RADAR-AD Patient Advisory Board members speak about the learnings from involving people with dementia, mild cognitive impairment and carers in the project at IMI’s webinar on patient involvement
On 7 October, the funder of the RADAR-AD project – the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), held a webinar about its impact on patient involvement in collaborative research projects. In the past years, IMI-funded initiatives have become evident game changers in the field of patient involvement. Chris Roberts and Jayne Goodrick, core members of the RADAR-AD Patient Advisory Board and speakers at the recent IMI webinar, gave their testimony to this development – patient representatives are taking an increasingly more active role across research consortia and providing invaluable insights. Among others, patient advocates are included as members of patient advisory groups, advising on ethical issues, communication activities, clinical visits and documentation, all the while ensuring meaningful involvement of the patient perspective within the project.