Ochsner to build neuroscience center, including early-onset dementia clinic
Ochsner Neuroscience Institute Named a Comprehensive Care Center by The Parkinson’s Foundation
August 12, 2022
Ochsner Health will break ground early next year on a new, freestanding neuroscience center that will house an early-onset dementia clinic, rehabilitative services and integrative services like music and water therapy, in what the system hopes will make New Orleans a “true destination for neurologic diseases,” said Dr. C.J. Bui, co-director of the Ochsner Neuroscience Institute.
The project will consolidate existing services with new services for both kids and adults.
“When you bring together folks that are all looking at problems in different ways, the aggregate is more than sum,” Bui said last week. “We’ll be bringing together over 20 different centers, clinics and programs under one roof."
The 132,000-square-foot building – roughly the size of two football fields – will be called Robert J. and Debra H. Patrick Neuroscience Center and will sit across the street from Ochsner Medical Center on Jefferson Highway. The Patricks, described as New Orleans entrepreneurs and long-time supporters of the hospital system, donated an undisclosed amount to establish the center. Robert Patrick is a managing partner of The Patrick Companies and has been an Ochsner board member for the last ten years.
Ochsner has been planning the neuroscience center for almost a decade, said Bui, following an abrupt exit of many neurological specialists after Hurricane Katrina. It will be funded by a combination of donations and investment from the hospital system.
Hospital officials hope the new neuroscience center will address Louisiana’s high burden of brain and spine disease and help diagnose diseases like dementia earlier, when interventions have a higher chance of improving quality of life over the long term.
Brain health experts have long sounded the alarm on the rise of not only mental illness, but also the prevalence of Alzheimer’s and dementia as the general population lives longer and the baby boomer generation reaches their 60s and 70s.
“Louisiana and the Gulf Coast area needs it even more; we’re simply seeing a disproportionately higher disease burden than anywhere else,” said Bui.
Nearly 14% of people over the age of 45 in Louisiana have subjective cognitive decline. Louisiana has the fourth-highest rate of deaths from Alzheimer’s in the U.S., trailing behind nearby Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
Louisiana is also in the country’s stroke belt, said Dr. Richard Zweifler, system chair of neurology and co-director of the Ochsner Neuroscience Institute.
The center aims to attract more specialized doctors and training programs, following a national trend of specialization in health care. An explosion of ways to diagnose and treat brain and spine diseases has led to a need for more specific expertise.
“Twenty years ago you’d have a lot more neurologists who are generalists and can manage a lot of different things,” said Zweifler. Now, diseases like multiple sclerosis, for example, require a host of experts and imaging and infusion centers, said Zweifler.
The new location also aims to address the difficulty of caring for someone with a neurologic disease. The flow of traffic and how you might drop someone off who has cognitive difficulties is being considered, said Hui. A healing garden will be a respite for caregivers and patients. The center will also house predictive artificial intelligence machine learning that may be able to calculate risk of developing dementia before symptoms begin.
After starting construction early next year, the building is expected to be completed around 2025.
To read the full article, visit NOLA.com
