New prize fund for dementia innovation

The Department of Health has launched a new prize fund to stimulate innovation in the treatment and care of patients with dementia.

Healthcare organisations and industry professionals have been invited to highlight the areas of care they feel need the most attention as part of the NHS Innovation Challenge.

Created in partnership with Janssen UK - a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson - applicants are encouraged to come up with new ways to meet these needs.

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, said: "Projects that foster innovation play an important role in driving forward progress and I look forward to hearing the ideas in response to the dementia research challenge."

The £150,000 prize has been funded by Janssen and will be shared between the winners, with submissions assessed by NHS clinicians, managers and leading academics.

Janssen are currently developing a new treatment for Alzheimer's in conjunction with pharmaceutical firm Pfizer. However, recent poor trial results mean it now looks unlikely bapineuzumab will ever reach the market.

Find out more about Alzheimer's disease care at Barchester homes.