Making diagnosis easier for primary care providers, care partners, and people living with Alzheimer’s.
Framing the barriers to diagnosis & treatment
The Alzheimer’s Association has been supporting people living with the disease and care partners for decades, yet little was known about the systemic challenges facing primary care providers in pursuit of a diagnosis. Upstream engaged people living with the disease, care partners, health system administrators and primary care providers in a qualitative research effort to identify the barriers to diagnosis and treatment across the healthcare system. Key barriers centered on the themes of knowledge, capacity, incentives and beliefs. The insight gained was leveraged to develop a system framework that was used to align internal stakeholders and prioritize challenges to focus solutioning efforts on those with the greatest potential for impact.
Identifying solutions to drive early diagnosis & treatment
Using the prioritized challenges as a starting point, Upstream engaged internal stakeholders, providers, payers, quality improvement experts, and other primary care organizations in a series of co-creation workshops. Several high-level solutions emerged that were both desirable for system stakeholders and feasible for the Association to develop. They spanned communications policy, care algorithms, payer coding and medical record keeping. The solutions were integrated into the Association’s strategic roadmap to guide near-, mid- and long-term investments.
Scaling adoption of solutions across the healthcare system
The availability of solutions doesn’t mean they will be adopted into practice. The Association recognizes the need to drive adoption of solutions across the system. Upstream is leading a co-creation effort with various healthcare stakeholders (decision-makers and task force members) to ensure implementers are equipped with the tools and processes needed to deploy solutions at scale.
“Upstream’s work was foundational to the Association’s strategic expansion beyond traditional care and support programs, and research for a cure.”
- Senior Executive, Alzheimer’s Association