About Us

History

The Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute's (WAI) was established in 1998 as a center within the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH). The original concept for the WAI came from a coalition of service providers, community-based organizations, educational institutions and advocates organized by the Wisconsin Bureau on Aging and Long-Term Care Resources and the Helen Bader Foundation in Milwaukee. These original efforts have made the WAI a public/private partnership with a vision of collaboration with state and local partners to provide service, outreach, education and research that improve the lives of the people of Wisconsin.

The WAI receives core funding from the State of Wisconsin, research funding from the National Institute of Health and program funding from the Helen Bader Foundation. These funds are used for research in Alzheimer's disease prevention (Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention) and programs and services that support persons and families affected by the disease.

In 2006, under the direction of Mark Sager, MD, the WAI received $3.5 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support research in Alzheimer's disease prevention, the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention (WRAP). WRAP is a nationally recognized study of over 1300 asymptomatic adult children of persons with Alzheimer's disease with a primary goal to identify the genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors that eventually lead to the development of Alzheimer's disease in susceptible persons. This is an essential first step in research that could eventually delay the onset or even prevent Alzheimer's disease.

In 2008, the WAI celebrated 10 years of excellence in Alzheimer's research, outreach and education. Please read The Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute, 2003-2008 and The Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute, 1998-2003 for a summary of the last 10 years of WAI's research, outreach and educational efforts.

In May of 2009, the WAI became part of the NIH-funded Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) at the UWSMPH. The Wisconsin ADRC, led by Sanjay Asthana, MD, is part of a network of research centers in the United States that are studying the neurobiology of Alzheimer's disease. WRAP and Alzheimer's disease prevention are core themes in the new ADRC supporting research that contributes to the understanding of the disease. The outreach and educational activities of the WAI comprise the Education Core of the ADRC.

The WAI's collaboration with small rural communities and urban centers, the UWSMPH and the academic and research departments of the University have made the WAI a statewide presence embodied in the Wisconsin Idea of extending the benefits of UW-Madison to the borders of the state and beyond.

Mission

The Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute is committed to creating a public health environment in which Alzheimer's disease and related dementias are widely recognized, well understood, aggressively and appropriately treated, and in which those who are afflicted and those who care for them receive the education, quality services and support they need to effectively cope with this devastating chronic disease.

The Urgency of Our Mission

• It is estimated that as many as 5.3 million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer's disease, and that number is expected to grow to as many as 16 million by 2050.
• Every 70 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer's disease. By mid-century, someone will develop the disease every 33 seconds.
• Alzheimer's is the seventh-leading cause of death.
• One in five women and one in 10 men who live to be at least age 55 will develop Alzheimer's disease in their lifetime.
• Approximately 10 million of the 78 million U.S. baby boomers who were alive in 2007 can expect to develop Alzheimer's disease.
• African-Americans are more likely than Caucasians to have Alzheimer's disease.
• The number of African-Americans entering the age of Alzheimer risk (age 65 or older) is expected to more than double to 6.9 million by 2030.
• More than 40 percent of family and other unpaid caregivers of people with Alzheimer's and other dementias rate the emotional stress of caregiving as high or very high.
• Alzheimer's and dementia triple healthcare costs for Americans age 65 and older.
• The direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer's and other dementias to Medicare, Medicaid and businesses amount to more than $148 billion each year.

These are just a few of the facts from the Alzheimer's Association. Their new report, 2009 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures, is a comprehensive statistical abstract of U.S. data on Alzheimer's disease that includes:

• prevalence
• mortality
• the costs of Alzheimer care
• caregiving
• a special report on Mild Cognitive Impairment and early-stage Alzheimer's