Pat Summitt Clinic: Focus on 'out-of-the-box' Alzheimer's research bolstered by Regal-backed fundraising effort

Just past the first anniversary of its opening, Dr. Roberto Fernandez, medical director for the Pat Summitt Clinic at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, is looking at the years ahead — years in which he expects the clinic to become a national leader in “out-of-the-box” research on Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.

Fernandez, recruited by the medical center in part because of his research interests and expertise, said the clinic is heavily focused on collaboration between scientists and the providers who treat people with dementia.

This “translational research” takes findings out of the lab — where they may have come about through testing on animals and computer models — and applies them to the clinic, where they’re used with patients. Having both labs and a clinic under the same roof is “a big advantage,” Fernandez said.

Legendary UT basketball coach Pat Summitt, a vocal proponent of teamwork, envisioned the clinic that now bears her name as a place in East Tennessee where patients, families, caregivers and medical experts could work together to improve care and support, conduct groundbreaking research, and educate future health care providers.

The clinic, supported in part by a grant from the Pat Summitt Foundation, already is doing that, Fernandez said.

► More:Pat Summitt clinic's design keeps Alzheimer's patients in mind

It’s partnering with UT’s College of Nursing to measure the effects of dementia on caregivers, family and society as a whole, and identify ways to provide support to families and patients — possibly even tailored to the needs of a specific community.

It’s looking at new ways to measure brain activity, hopefully to give doctors the ability to diagnose Alzheimer’s earlier and better predict its progression — or possibly, someday, interrupt it. It’s finding ways to calculate what effect medications or other treatments are having on cognitive ability.

And it’s collaborating with lab-based scientists who are looking at the brain as a whole. It’s looking at how dementia affects the brain’s physical structure, functions, behaviors and patterns, and the role of genetics, among other factors.

“The brain is a complex organ; these changes don’t happen in a vacuum,” Fernandez said, adding that dementia could affect more brain processes than scientists now know about. “It’s kind of like looking at the trees, then stepping back and looking at the forest.”

Fernandez said that type of research is “gaining momentum in the field, and we want to be a leader in that.”

But federal funding, though crucial and appreciated, “is not nearly sufficient to fund the efforts we are talking about,” he said. In addition, governmental grants are not guaranteed to be renewed, and research centers must compete against one another to get them. And it can be “tricky” to secure them for nontraditional research projects.

“We want to expand these collaborations and grow our team, bring in new talent,” Fernandez said. “We want to focus on people who have bold and great ideas. Thinking outside the box is necessary with this disease.”

On Thursday, Regal Entertainment Group CEO Amy Miles announced she would chair a major fundraising initiative to support research at the Pat Summitt Clinic, which now sees about 3,500 patients a year but expects to nearly double that in the next five years.

“Many Regal employees have been personally touched by Pat’s legacy on and off the court,” said Miles, a UT graduate who said she’s long admired Summitt. “She left us with a charge to carry on her mission.”

Regal supported the creation of the clinic with a $50,000 corporate grant and aired public service announcements in its theaters. The fundraising from this initiative, which will culminate with the 2019 Evening in Orange gala, will provide for “significant expansion” of the multidisciplinary brain research at the center, Fernandez said. The estimated number of Americans with Alzheimer's, now 5 million, is expected to triple, to 16 million, by 2050.

“When you think about what we’ve accomplished in a year, we’ve come a long way,” he said. “Our goal is to become a leader in this type of research — but it takes a lot of effort and money.”