International Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) Conference

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most common type of degenerative dementia, and the complex array of cognitive, neuropsychiatric, motor, sleep and autonomic features results in significant emotional and economic burden for patients, families and society in North America and worldwide. While DLB is a minor focus in other international conferences more devoted to Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, the International DLB Conference (IDLBC) is the only conference focused on this disorder. The 1st through 3rd IDLBC were held in Newcastle, UK, and Budapest, Hungary, and the 4th IDLBC was held in Yokohama, Japan, in 2006. These conferences are important opportunities for clinicians, researchers, trainees, caregivers and policy makers from around the world to share knowledge with the goal of improving care for patients with DLB. For various reasons, many of them financial, no organization had decided to lead efforts in organizing the next IDLBC. From early 2014 to the present, the Mayo School of Continuing Professional Development and the Department of Neurology at Mayo Clinic repeatedly convened and ultimately approved support for the 5th International DLB Conference to be held December 1-4, 2015, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, The conference will be organized by Mayo Clinic clinicians and researchers Drs. Brad Boeve, Dennis Dickson, Tanis Ferman, Kejal Kantarci and Angela Lunde, with guidance and support from an International Scientific Program Committee and the Lewy Body Dementia Association. A Patient and Carepartner Program Committee has also been established. The conference programs are being designed to offer attendees an opportunity to learn about a broad spectrum of topics related to DLB. Three tracks have been developed: 1) the Scientific Track to transpire over days 1-4, 2) the Patient and Carepartner Track to transpire over days 2 and 3 concurrent with 2 days of the Scientific Track, and 3) the Clinician Track to transpire over days 1-3 in which clinicians can attend sessions in the Scientific or Patient and Carepartner Tracks. Day 1 is open to all attendees and will provide an update of DLB-related topics covering clinical and diagnostic issues, therapeutics, neuropsychology, neurophysiology, neuroimaging, neuropathology, genetics, biofluid markers and basic science aspects of DLB and Lewy body disease. The scientific presentations will allow experts from diverse backgrounds to share recent discoveries, insights and opinions; thereby promoting research collaboration, consensuses development, training opportunities, and knowledge translation across disciplines. Prodromal DLB will be the focus of the Scientific Track, and working groups will meet over days 2-4 to develop consensus for updated diagnostic criteria and suggestions for future research. The concurrent Patient and Carepartner Track will provide patients, family members, carepartners, clinicians, interested laypersons and representatives from advocacy groups an update on many practical issues relating to diagnosis, management and optimization of quality of life, as well as review the latest research advances and provide opportunities to interact directly with the scientific community. A major point of emphasis for this conference is the inclusion of junior investigators and promoting the participation of under-served populations. Harmonization of DLB research methodology across continents will also be emphasized. It is anticipated that the 2015 conference will attract more than 400 national and international scientific delegates, more than 200 patients and carepartners, and more than 100 clinicians. Although the majority of the necessary funding will come from conference registration, additional external financial support is being sought in order to keep costs reasonable. The specific use of the funds requested in this application is to support registration and travel expenses for i) faculy who have been invited to speak at the Scientific Sessions, and ii) junior researchers (trainees).