An Interprofessional Team for Disease Modifying Therapy in Alzheimer’s Disease Implementation
Katherine Turk1, Mark Knobel2, Alexandra Nothern2, Garrett Friedman3, Hannah Noah2, Brendan Campbell2, Diana Anderson2, Antreas Charidimou2, Andrew Mills2, Vanessa Coronel2, Nacha Pierre2, Beverly Reynolds2, Caroline Wagner2, Leanne Varga2, John Roefaro2, Laura Triantafylidis2, Andrew Budson4
1Boston VA, 2VA Boston, 3Beth Israel, 4VA Boston Healthcare System
Objective:
Lecanemab and other new amyloid-targeting immunotherapies for Alzheimer's disease show great promise but, may also pose significant risk for patients.
Background:
To facilitate the implementation and monitoring of lecanemab infusions at a tertiary medical center, we convened an interprofessional team.
Design/Methods:
The team created resources including patient handouts and medical documentation templates as well as systems and processes that are likely to be useful to other clinical care settings and centers. It is our intent to widely share resources and processes developed.
Results:
We found that that forming an interdisciplinary team comprising of behavioral neurologists, geriatricians, pharmacists, infusion nurses, neuroradiologists, and trainees is instrumental in initiating lecanemab infusions at a tertiary medical center. This team structure and process is also important in ongoing administration and monitoring of patients on lecanemab.
Conclusions:
The approach we have outlined may be adaptable and can be used across the medical system. Depending on each center’s infrastructure, roles might be filled by other healthcare professionals such as nurses, nurse practitioners, or physician assistants instead of fellows/residents when necessary.