$100 million comprehensive research and patient care center will offer the latest advancing therapies for dementia and all neurologic disorders.
SAN ANTONIO — Amid a rising storm of needed care for dementia and other neurologic diseases, construction began this week on the $100 million Center for Brain Health, a new patient care and clinical trials facility of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
The Center for Brain Health, expected to be complete in 2025, is among $1 billion in capital investments undertaken by UT Health San Antonio over the next four years, including the UT Health San Antonio Multispecialty and Research Hospital.
The Center for Brain Health is being built to advance research and provide innovative expert care of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, related dementias, movement disorders, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other vexing health concerns.
The facility also will serve as a training venue for medical residents and postgraduate trainees.
“There is an urgency to our standing up this new comprehensive center of care, the first of its kind in our region,” said William L. Henrich, MD, MACP, president of UT Health Science Center San Antonio, also called UT Health San Antonio.
The primary risk factor for developing dementia is a person’s age. According to census data, Bexar County is home to 250,000 senior adults 65 and older, and the number is projected to grow as San Antonio is an attractive retirement destination.
The city’s population is more than 60 percent Hispanic. Data show Hispanics are 1.5 times more likely than Caucasians to develop dementia.
One of every six Americans suffers from brain disease including dementia, headache, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, neuropathy and multiple sclerosis.
“The Center for Brain Health will be a critically important site of clinical research, offering the latest advancing therapies for dementia, neurodegenerative diseases and all neurologic disorders,” Sudha Seshadri, MD, said. “It will also be a major U.S. center in the recruitment of Hispanics into clinical trials, expanding our nation’s understanding of how these diseases specifically affect them.”
Seshadri is professor of neurology and founding director of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio. The Biggs Institute will share space in the Center for Brain Health with the Department of Neurology of UT Health’s Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine.
“Neurology patient care services, including those for dementia and disorders such as ALS, require comprehensive assessments accompanied by imaging studies, neuropsychology testing, family services and other facets,” said Carlayne Jackson, MD, professor and chairman of the Department of Neurology.
She directs UT Health San Antonio’s Neuromuscular Disorders Program, which offers a Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Clinic that is one of only 38 MDA/ALS Research Centers in the country. The program also is an ALS Association-Certified Treatment Center of Excellence.
A team of psychologists, radiologists and other professionals in the Center for Brain Health will align closely with the neighboring large outpatient practice at UT Health San Antonio’s Medical Arts and Research Center (MARC).
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