‘A diagnosis does not replace the person.’ Fernando Aguzzoli-Peres has noticed hundreds of people carry that sentence with them, some for years. As Executive Director of Walking the Talk for Dementia (WTD), he spends his time doing something not all health systems make space for: listening.

Every year, WTD brings together 85 people from over 30 countries – researchers, clinicians, policymakers, people living with dementia and care partners for an unconventional experience. They cover 40 km of the Camino de Santiago together before sitting down for a two-day symposium. By the end, something has shifted. Scientists who have spent careers studying dementia in the abstract are now walking next to someone living it. Participants from diverse walks of life feel seen, heard and belonging to a community.

"If we only see dementia as a disease, our solutions will always be incomplete," Fernando says. "We create spaces where science meets lived experience. I hope people can see dementia not only as a disease but as a new chapter in a person's life."

Dr Maria Teresa Ferretti, co-founder and stakeholder engagement lead at the WTD Institute, puts it even more directly: healthcare systems don't need to guess what people affected by dementia need. They need to ask.

"The most important thing is to create an environment where we can listen and ask people living with dementia and their caregivers what their needs are," she says. "We should have a conversation about living well with dementia."

That conversation is exactly what the EFPIA Alzheimer's Disease Platform set out to capture. Our new video series brings together the voices shaping dementia care across Europe – persons living with dementia, care partners, clinicians, innovators – each offering a different angle on the same question: what would it take to build a system that actually puts the people it’s meant to serve at the centre?

A challenge too big to face alone

The urgency behind that question is easy to underestimate until you see the numbers. Dementia is already the leading cause of disability and dependency among older adults in Europe, costing families and societies an estimated €221 billion a year. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60-70% of cases. More than 9 million people were living with dementia in the EU in 2025, according to Alzheimer Europe – a figure projected to climb to 14 million by 2050, a 58% increase.

Behind every one of those numbers is a version of Fernando's story: a person, a family, a "new chapter" that many healthcare systems are not yet equipped to write.

What "listening" looks like in practice

Taking lived experience seriously isn't only about compassion – it's also, as it turns out, good design. Dr Ryan Wiley, President of Shift Health, which EFPIA commissioned to produce Future-proofing the Alzheimer's Disease Healthcare Journey, describes "two realities" in Europe today. "Europe is a crucible of innovation in Alzheimer's prevention, diagnosis, care and management, and there are initiatives, programmes and projects that are driving change," he says. "But on the other hand, there is a real gap in scaling these initiatives and implementing them to reach populations across the continent."

Closing that gap, the report argues, starts with five priorities:

• Address stigma and empower primary care.
• Incentivise and scale accessible, convenient, cost-effective diagnostic solutions.
• Advance multidisciplinary care models.
• Use data to drive policy and practice.
• Enable trans-sector partnerships.

The report features concrete examples of what's possible, including Mindmore, a Swedish technology company. Mindmore developed a digital platform that turns paper-based cognitive assessments into a test patients can complete themselves in primary care, where most people first raise concerns. "We make cognitive assessments available in places where patients first show up," says Sara Wallén, Mindmore's CEO and Founder. Data from a Swedish provider using the tool for four years shows assessment time falling from 230 minutes to 105 – a 54% reduction – while cutting months off the time from referral to diagnosis.

For Wallén, the lesson isn't that innovation is missing, the challenge is accelerating implementation. "Treatments are approved in Europe, blood-based biomarkers work, digital cognitive tests work. So, what's missing isn't knowledge or innovation, it's delivery." And delivery, she notes, has a compounding effect: "Every hour we free up at the front of the pathway is an hour that becomes available further down the path where specialists work."

But none of it – faster diagnosis, better data, smarter tools – means much if it isn't built around the people who use it. Shift Health’s report makes the same point Fernando and Maria Teresa make from the Camino: "The quality of the care an individual receives should not be an accident of the country in which they happen to live."

Bringing the person back to the centre

That's the thread running through the video series: innovation only matters if it reaches people, and it will be most effective if they helped shape it. The disparities Ryan Wiley describes, the delivery gap Sara Wallén highlights, the stigma Fernando and Maria Teresa work to dismantle – these are all, at root, the same problem seen from different points of view.

The question our video series puts to health systems, researchers and policymakers alike is simple: are we ready to build care that puts people at the centre of their journey?

Watch the full EFPIA Alzheimer's Disease Platform video series to hear these perspectives in their own words.

"A diagnosis does not replace the person.” Fernando Aguzzoli-Peres and Maria Teresa Ferretti from Walking the Talk for Dementia explore how listening to people living with dementia and their care partners can shape better care. 

Ryan Wiley, President of Shift Health, explores how Europe can turn promising approaches to Alzheimer’s care into everyday practice, drawing on the priorities in the report Future-proofing the Alzheimer’s Disease Healthcare Journey.

Sara Wallén, CEO and Founder of Mindmore, explores how digital cognitive assessments can make brain health a routine part of healthcare, helping more people access timely answers and support.