Clinical trials are an important step in finding treatments for certain diseases, like Alzheimer’s disease which has no cure. But because of the coronavirus pandemic, there are concerns that participation in these trials has been lagging.
Dr. Anna Burke is the director of the Alzheimer's and Memory Disorders Division at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. She says patients are more hesitant to come in person.
"So, the data that is being gathered within clinical trials because of the pandemic is being limited by that and possibly how treatments are developed," she said.
Another issue she says is telemedicine, which has taken off during the pandemic.
"We do need physical presence in order to be able to perform some of these tasks," she said.
Like MRIs or other neuroimaging, blood studies or lumbar punctures, for instance. Burke says someone is being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease every 66 seconds, so the need for effective treatments is great.
