The future of dementia contained in a drop of blood, and the fierce battle to attract national projects > News

The cohort study of patients with early-onset dementia being conducted by the National Institute of Health, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, has provided encouraging results to our medical community. The researchers followed a total of 322 patients, including patients with Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia, for about two years and analyzed the correlation between biomarker levels in the blood and the speed of disease progression. As a result, it was confirmed that in patients with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, the higher the level of certain biomarkers, the more steeply the decline in cognitive function and worsening clinical symptoms appear. This means that blood tests go beyond simply checking your health and can be a powerful tool for predicting the likelihood of developing dementia and its future course.

The true value of this study is that it clearly established that early-onset Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia show different blood biomarker characteristics. Until now, accurate differential diagnosis of early-onset dementia has been very difficult due to its diverse symptoms and complex progression pattern. However, this discovery has laid the foundation for building a prognosis prediction model specialized for each disease. In particular, given that it is a large-scale domestic study targeting patients with general early-onset dementia rather than genetic factors, it is expected to be used as key basic data to realize customized precision medicine in the future.

Along with innovation in the health and medical field, competition between regions to attract national research institutes is also fierce. In particular, Gwangju City's actions surrounding the establishment of the 'National Dental Research Institute' are noteworthy. Gwangju has been proactively raising the need to establish the research institute since 2012, and is emphasizing that it is the optimal location by boasting that it is the only non-metropolitan area in the country to have two dental schools. It is assessed that the abundant infrastructure, such as the already established Dental Materials and Parts Technology Support Center and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center, has sufficient conditions to concentrate research capabilities.

In addition to attracting research institutes, efforts by public institutions to renew their organizational culture are also important pillars in increasing the reliability of health care administration. The integrity training jointly conducted by five public institutions that recently moved into the Health and Welfare Administration Town was conducted in a form that broke away from the customary lecture method and combined cultural content such as theater and sand art. This is an effort to eradicate abuse of power and spread a culture of mutual respect within the public service community, and demonstrates the company's determination to become a transparent institution trusted by the public. Only when technical research results and administrative integrity are harmonized in this way will the development of a health care system that the public can feel become possible.