Memory clinic for primary care physicians and its characteristics

Hideharu Karasawa¹⁾, Yoshihide Yasuma²⁾, Hiromichi Naito²⁾, Masahiko Udagawa³⁾

¹⁾Neurosurgery, Asahi General Hospital
²⁾Neurosurgery, Funabashi Municipal Medical Center
³⁾Psychiatry, Funabashi Municipal Medical Center

The authors established a memory clinic for primary care physicians in 2009. There are three distinct characteristics of this clinic. First, the patients undergo diagnostic imaging examinations at the memory clinic, and receive medication at primary care clinic. Second, the memory clinic is open to both referred and unreferred patients. Third, if a patient does not have a family doctor, the clinician recommends him/her to a primary care physician after the diagnostic examination. There were 1,663 patients from 2013 to 2015, and 1,643 of them underwent CT, MRI, and/or SPECT and 1,053 of them were diagnosed with dementia. Following the diagnostic imaging, the 1,449 patients were referred to doctors such as primary care physicians, supporting doctors, and psychiatrists.

Address correspondence to Dr. Hideharu Karasawa, Neurosurgery, Asahi General Hospital (I-1326 Asahi, Chiba 289-2511, Japan)