<\/p>\n
Lessig leaves notes reminding her mother about household tasks and plans.<\/p>\n
Joanne Pike, CEO and president of the national nonprofit the Alzheimer\u2019s Association, said she believes DPRIT will build more diagnosis and treatment infrastructure in Texas for Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, we know that it is far too difficult for Texans to get an early or accurate diagnosis,\u201d Pike said. \u201cWe know that there are neurology deserts and that many primary care physicians lack the specialized training necessary to provide appropriate care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Proponents of DPRIT also hope the investment will attract top researchers and physicians in the neurology field \u2014 and create a major research engine that could lead to a cure for Alzheimer\u2019s and other types of dementia and brain disease.<\/p>\n
There is already a blueprint for the program: Texas\u2019 Cancer Prevention and Research Institute<\/a>. Approved by voters in 2007, CPRIT turned Texas into the second-largest funder of cancer research in America, after the National Cancer Institute. It has helped attract several hundred cancer scholars to Texas, including a Nobel laureate<\/a>.<\/p>\n Joan Huffman, the Republican state senator who authored the DPRIT bill, made the comparison late last year on a panel discussing the new legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe brought in some incredible researchers and scientists, and I don’t think anyone would disagree that what has happened in cancer research hasn’t saved many, many lives,\u201d Huffman said. \u201cWe want to do the same for dementia-related diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n DPRIT would work mostly by issuing grants to researchers and groups at a time when federal grant funding for medical research has become more uncertain. Although Congress has recently signaled its support for increasing funding for Alzheimer\u2019s research, some NIH-funded grants were canceled or interrupted<\/a> by the Trump administration this year.<\/p>\n Matthews uses a checklist to keep track of her medications and routines.<\/p>\n Romi Lessig said uncertainty at the federal level is one reason why she will be voting for Proposition 14.<\/p>\n \u201cThe one inescapable [thing] about Alzheimer’s is time is not your friend,\u201d she said. \u201cWe cannot wait for the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n Time, Lessig knows, is not on her mother\u2019s side. While there is promising research out there, she does not expect a cure will arrive in time to help her mom. But she is hopeful that research driven by DPRIT can help prevent future cases of the disease \u2014 and develop new supports for caregivers like herself.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s going to be a day she’s going to look at me and not know who the hell I am, and part of me is going to die that day,\u201d Lessig said. \u201cBut part of me will still be there, and part of me will not want to go down that path. It\u2019s not because I don’t want the disease \u2014 I don’t want my children to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n She doesn\u2019t want her kids to worry that their mother will one day have their grandmother\u2019s disease. That, she believes, is preventable.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n