Can Alzheimer's Prevention Work via Telemedicine?

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Richard S. Isaacson, MD: I'm Dr Richard Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian.

Hollie B. Hristov, MSN, FNP-C: I'm Hollie Hristov, the family nurse practitioner at the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic.

Isaacson: Today we're going to be talking about how to practice risk reduction or prevention for Alzheimer's disease in the age of COVID-19.

Back in March, when everything changed in New York City and really globally, our practice had to learn to become very nimble and switch as much as we could. A lot of practices throughout the country have had immense trouble doing so. We are fortunate that we've been able to see patients for telemedicine. We're not a heavily procedure-based clinic. But initially we had no ability to do cognitive testing, and our billing came down by about 70%. I have a lot of empathy and compassion for practitioners out there, whether in private practice, more structured settings, or academia, because it's been really tough. We've really struggled, but we're trying to tread water and keep it up.

Normally at the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic, a new patient comes in, we get to know them, and talk to them for about an hour and a half.