The University of Sydney launched the Virtual Memory Clinic, the first of its kind in the country, in June 2024, seeing positive engagement and feedback with the program.
“We’re talking about why this has been such a success, what it’s meant for the community, the problem with dementia around Australia,” Australian Dementia Network strategic communication manager Dale Amtsberg said.
“Especially the issues that rural and regional communities face, in terms of long specialist waiting times ... this project has been able to clear waiting times.”
The team visited Echuca Regional Health on Thursday, March 20, to meet with patients and clinicians, reflecting on the clinic’s success.
These discussions were captured on film to support advocacy for program expansion.
“We’re in the process of conversations with government of all levels ... as well as with donors and industry around ‘how do we take this model nationwide?’,” Mr Amtsberg said.
“It’s a model that came out of COVID around being able to provide some support by telehealth and address some of those specialist shortages.
“We want to combine it with what we’re learning about dementia.”
Project manager Simone Simonetti shared the reach of the clinic thus far, highlighting the positive patient impact it has had.
“In the first month we cleared the nine-month waitlist in the Cognitive, Dementia and Memory Service clinic,” Dr Simonetti said.
“We saw over 70 people in 10 months. Usually, the CDAMS clinic sees about one to two people a month.
“We were seeing one to two people a week, so we increased capacity by 600 per cent.
“There was a big wait log ... some people waited two years to see a neuroscientist.”
Strides in dementia research have been made, including new ways of early diagnosis and treatments, such as through a blood test.
The clinic is hoping to support these developments.
“The first treatments for dementia that have shown to be effective in slowing the disease are hopefully very close to Australia, we’re just waiting for approval,” Mr Amtsberg said.
“The idea is that we can expand this, but also use it as a way to give people access to those treatments.”
The blood test diagnosis will be much simpler to access, requiring a trip to the GP and pathologist, as opposed to expensive, invasive and less accurate methods like spinal fluid sampling.
ADNeT chief operations officer Cherry Santos emphasised the significance of this test.
“There’s also a paper on (the) Journal of the American Medical Association about this blood test,” she said.
“It is actually 92 per cent accurate, compared to a specialist diagnosis which is 76 per cent.
“It’s a game changer and we’re piloting this in Australia.”
During filming, resounding themes from patients and the team centred around the value of a community-based approached.
Mr Amtsberg said community members were important to the design of the project.
“One of the things we’ve heard from everyone is how Echuca Regional Health is a really innovative health service,” he said.
“Having (the clinic) present and local and easily accessible within the community was just the key.”
The video produced by the Australia Dementia Network — which supports 21 universities and research institutes — will be distributed across its network of policymakers, donors and politicians.
There is also potential for the video to be shown at future co-design sessions with other regional communities.
“It’s a very easy way to show (that) this is the project, this is what it means, this is what it means for the local community,” Mr Amtsberg said.
“It’s a good moment to tell the story of its success now, so that we can then leverage into the future everywhere.”
The ADNet and University of Sydney teams are pleased with the outcome of the program so far.
They are impressed by how welcoming ERH and the broader community have been.
“We’re just go grateful to the local community,” Mr Amtsberg said.
“The patients we spoke to today were just incredible. Everyone’s been so open, receptive and supportive.”
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