Quality improvement in neurology

Abstract

Dementia is a neurologic condition manifested by a substantial decline in multiple cognitive abilities that collectively render a person unable to function at expected levels and progressively impede independent ability to perform everyday activities. For decades, public health officials have warned of the coming tsunami of Alzheimer disease (AD), and dementia has even been characterized as the dominant scourge of modern times, replacing cancer. 1 Recently, hopeful signs have appeared, including reports from some longitudinal research studies that incidence of dementia is declining, 2 and from the federal government that research funding for AD and other dementias will approach $1 billion USD in 2017. 3