Ga. Senate passes bill to creates Alzheimer’s registry

ATLANTA — The Georgia State Senate passed a measure to establish an Alzheimer’s Disease Registry within the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Senate Bill 292, sponsored by Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, passed by a vote of 45 to 6.

“I am pleased the Senate recognized the importance of creating this registry,” Unterman said in a statement. “An estimated 125,000 Georgians are currently suffering from this disease and these numbers are expected to double over the next ten years.”

Recommended by the State Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias Task Force, the Alzheimer’s Disease Registry is a comprehensive database that will assist the legislature with elder care planning and the development of future public policy.

The data collected from this registry will remain confidential and allow additional research to be conducted on the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders in Georgia. To ensure patient privacy, personal information will not be published in research articles, publications or biotechnical research.

The measure now heads to the state House of Representatives for consideration.