02/17/2024
07:20 am - 08:50 am
Room: West Side Ballroom - Salon 2
CE Workshop 11
Session Host Name: Ben Hampstead Host's Role: Introduction
The Role of the Neuropsychologist in Alzheimer’s Disease Biomarker Testing & Disclosure: Ethical, Cultural, and Practical Considerations
Summary Abstract:
Novel biomarker testing for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) represent a critical opportunity to identify and treat individuals at risk for AD and related dementias (ADRD) earlier in the disease process – in some cases, before symptoms arise. The potential impact of early detection is even greater for individuals from minoritized ethno-racial groups, who receive a clinical diagnosis less often and later despite having higher prevalence of AD. While learning one’s AD biomarker results may offer access to disease-modifying therapies and other treatments, motivate health behavior and lifestyle change, and support advance planning, it may also precipitate psychological distress, stigma, and medicolegal discrimination. Furthermore, practice guidelines, tools, and protocols for biomarker disclosure are still in development. In light of the rapid translation of AD biomarker testing from research settings to clinical and direct-to-consumer applications, significant ethical, cultural, and practical issues must be addressed. Neuropsychologists may be uniquely trained to meet these challenges and are likely to play a critical role in the scientific study and clinical application of AD biomarker disclosure.
Number of Credit Hours: 1.5
Level of Instruction: Introductory
Learning Objectives:
1. Following this talk, participants will be able to describe current approaches to biomarker disclosure including evaluating fitness and decisional capacity for biomarker testing, pre-test education, feedback practices, and risk evaluation and management.
2. Following this talk, participants will be aware of cultural considerations for disclosure, including how limited diversity in past AD biomarker development and disclosure studies may limit translation.
3. Following this talk, participants will be able to describe the major ethical and practical considerations associated with biomarker testing and disclosure, as well as potential solutions or best practices.
Presenter(s):
Annalise Rahman-Filipiak, PhD
University of Michigan
Dr. Rahman-Filipiak is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry – Neuropsychology Section at the University of Michigan. She is an investigator in the Research Program on Cognition & Neuromodulation Based Interventions, wherein she leads multiple federally funded studies on culturally- and community-informed approaches to Alzheimer’s disease biomarker disclosure. Dr. Rahman-Filipiak also leads the Return of Results program at the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center; this program studies return of individual cognitive, neuroimaging, and other biomarker results as a health intervention and tool to support diverse recruitment into ADRD research. As part of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center consortium for CLarity in ADRD Research Through Imaging (CLARiTI), she serves as one of three national disclosure leads for the ADRC network, as well as several other multi-site ADRD trials. Finally, she serves as part of the Community Liaison and Recruitment Core of the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research, through which she studies and promotes community engaged research principles designed to center the voice of historically marginalized populations in healthcare and science.
