Opinion: STAT+: Dementia finally has a business model

July 28, 2026 Karlawish is a professor of medicine, medical ethics, health policy, and neurology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, co-director of the Penn Memory Center, and executive producer of the “Age of Aging” podcast. In the nine years since my last visit to the Docklands’ Excel conference center for the 2017 annual Alzheimer Association International Conference, or AAIC, little of London’s infrastructure has changed. I traveled via the same low-ceilinged, clattering trains with signs advising riders to “mind the gap” and “mind the step.” The center has the same weird jack-o’-lantern-esque façade and forgettable restaurants and hotels. I was even here for the same conference. Same meeting, in the same place, but what transpired was quite different. In just nine years, how we think about the aging brain has transformed. One moment captured this. It was a speaker’s remark at a breakfast meeting convened by the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative. The 5-year-old organization describes itself as “uniting leading organizations worldwide to build an innovation ecosystem that will accelerate breakthroughs, develop and scale promising solutions and equip every healthcare system to end Alzheimer’s disease everywhere.” STAT+ Exclusive Story Already have an account? Log in This article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers Unlock this article — plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and news alerts. Already have an account? Log in View All Plans To read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+. Subscribe