Campaign will rally experts on dementia

Join Dementia Research, launched on Tuesday, promises to accelerate the pace of dementia research by allowing people with and without dementia to register their interest in studies to help researchers find the right participants.

The service is a collaboration between the National Institute for Health Research, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer Scotland and has been funded by the Department of Health.

Dr John Sykes, Medical Director, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Finding suitable volunteers to take part in these research studies is a difficult and costly task.

“This can slow the research progress which is unacceptable given the urgent need of the hundreds of thousands of people affected by dementia.

“We’re thrilled to be supporting Join Dementia Research as it will overcome many of the existing barriers to accessing research and speed up the ongoing research effort, with the aim of ultimately finding a cure for dementia.”

Dementia affects over 850,000 people in the UK, with 25 million of the UK population having a close friend or family member affected. A new national poll has shown almost two thirds of the general public would be willing to take part in dementia research, but more than four out of five people would not know how to volunteer. Those interested can visit joindementiaresearch.nihr.ac.uk or call the helpline 0300 111 5111.