Avant Institute is One of Twelve Select Recipients of the Inaugural Global Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative Grant Program for Healthcare System Preparedness

CHARLOTTE, NC (JUNE 8, 2022) – Avant Institute, in partnership with neuroscience company Cognivue, announced it has received a grant to leverage the Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network (CPESN) to perform cognitive screening at pharmacies in communities nationwide. The grant comes from the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC), the organization leading an unprecedented global response to Alzheimer’s disease.

The project implements Cognivue Clarity, a self-administered 10-minute cognitive performance screening tool, to increase access to digital cognitive screening assessments in 20 to 30 CPESN pharmacy sites across rural, urban, and underserved communities throughout the United States. This project provides training and onboarding for pharmacies to use Cognivue to screen patients and evaluate the results to make further recommendations and referrals.

Avant Institute President and Avant Pharmacy and Wellness Center CEO, Amina Abubakar, PharmD, AAHIVP said, “We look forward to providing training and education for pharmacy sites to meet the needs of high-risk communities for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. This grant provides an opportunity to address a significant need to fill the gaps in conducting standardized cognitive assessments for patients, and pharmacies provide an access point to reach underserved and rural communities. We are proud to be partnering with The Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative on this initiative to address patient care needs and advance the collaboration between community pharmacies and their local providers.”

Cognivue President and CEO Tom O’Neill said, “We are excited to partner with such an amazing innovative leader in Amina Abubakar and her organization, the Avant Institute.  We believe CPESN and independent pharmacies can play an integral role in educating and screening patients for cognition.”

Avant Institute joins a global network of 12 grant projects, all part of the Davos Alzheimer’s      Collaborative Healthcare System Preparedness project, which aims to advance how healthcare systems worldwide detect, diagnose, treat, and care for people with or at risk for Alzheimer’s.

Founding Chairman of the Board, Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, George Vradenburg said, “We are excited to see how Avant Institute, Cognivue, and CPESN can be part of our efforts to create new pathways to early detection and look forward to helping to link and scale their successes to our partners around the world.”

CPESN USA Executive Director Troy Trygstad, PharmD, MBA, PhD said, “The pandemic highlighted the need for trusted and accessible testing, screening, and referrals for large swaths of the population, but in particular for those living in underserved neighborhoods or with cognitive limitations. Community pharmacies are likely to play an essential role in early identification, education, and warm handoffs for those at risk or in cognitive decline.”

The Avant Institute will have an opportunity to extend its impact by sharing best practices through DAC Learning Labs, communities of practice events, and other fora, all designed to share learnings and successes and encourage transformative action with healthcare systems around the globe.

About the Avant Institute

With a vision to expand the role for pharmacists in collaborative models, the Avant Institute was founded in 2017. The mission of the Avant Institute is to provide quality education for pharmacists through encouragement of professional advancement and team-based care to develop clinical services targeting provider-billed opportunities, pharmacy-billed opportunities, and the development of practical skills through immersive learning. To achieve this mission, the Avant Institute trains pharmacists and other healthcare professionals on innovative models and services. Through their experiences in the community pharmacy, primary care, and payer settings, the Avant Institute trains pharmacists not only to be aware of the clinical demands of patient care but also the demands within the value-based healthcare model.

About Cognivue

Cognivue, Inc. is a world-class neuroscience company focusing on cognitive health with the world’s first FDA-cleared computerized test of cognitive function. The Cognivue device and technology are based on years of research that uses adaptive psychophysics to focus on cortical information processing by testing key cognitive domains. The technology significantly improves the ability of healthcare providers to implement a personalized assessment of cognitive function in a wide variety of care settings. The company is elevating the gold standard of cognitive health assessment and empowering the healthcare community to monitor, identify and act on early detection of cognitive health concerns. For more information, call (585) 203-1969 or visit cognivue.com.

About CPESN USA

CPESN USA a clinically integrated, nationwide organization of local networks whose participating pharmacies are accountable for the care they provide to patients.  The benefits of evidence-based, patient-centered care – both in cost savings and improved quality of care – are proven. CPESN USA harnesses the value of individual, community-based pharmacies that each provide enhanced services into a collaborative organization that delivers evidence-based care and services to thousands of patients.  CPESN pharmacy provider networks are now in 45 states across America. 

About the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative

Launched at the World Economic Forum’s 2021 meeting on The Davos Agenda, The Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative is a multi-stakeholder partnership committed to aligning stakeholders with a new vision for our collective global response against the challenges Alzheimer’s presents to patients, caregivers and healthcare infrastructures. Convened by The World Economic Forum and The Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease (CEOi) and fueled by a mission of service to the estimated 150 million families and half a billion people inevitably impacted by this disease by 2050, DAC is a collaborative for the benefit of all people, in all places.

https://www.davosalzheimerscollaborative.org