Today, nearly 50 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or related dementias. Researchers estimate that it costs more than $800 billion per year to treat all these patients. And as the world’s elderly population grows, the number of dementia patients worldwide will increase, too—as will the disease’s financial cost—yet we still have no therapies that can slow or reverse its course.

These costs are already squeezing healthcare budgets in developed countries—and if they aren’t addressed, the burden they place on health systems around the world will be debilitating. That’s why, in 2018, Bill Gates and a coalition of partners decided to work together to improve the Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias data ecosystem.