Hoag Hospital officials are announcing plans for a center at the Newport Beach campus that will “pioneer new, whole family-centered approaches to brain health and healthy aging.”
A “transformational” $50 million gift from Newport Beach philanthropist Richard Pickup is helping establish the center, which will not only work on research and to improve gaps in care for memory and cognitive disorders, but also create programs for patients’ family members who are also impacted by the effects of the often devastating diseases.
“The idea is getting in front of this, doing things now and creating a model and programs that can actually help alleviate the suffering that comes with the disease, and also advancing new therapies and treatments that follow what we’ve done with cardiac care and diabetes care,” Ritter said. “It’s a huge change.”
Along with creating the new space on the hospital grounds, the $50 million gift will also go toward supportive programs for patients and their families with a focus on screenings, early detection and advancing technology, Hoag officials said.
“It’s a family disease, so anybody that’s affected by dementia, you multiply it by two or three, the number of people that it takes to care for those people,” Ritter said.