Vanderbilt builds AI Alzheimer referral tool

Vanderbilt Health researchers said on August 5 that Eli Lilly and Company awarded them a grant to build an artificial intelligence tool inside the electronic health record to speed referrals for Alzheimer’s treatment. The project is aimed at a narrow point in care delivery: the handoff from primary care or geriatrics to neurology for patients being evaluated for newly approved Alzheimer’s therapies. Vanderbilt said the software will summarize chart information, identify missing details and suggest whether a referral should be routed as priority or standard. The Nashville-based health system said the tool is designed to address delays that can stretch for weeks as patients move through referrals, specialist evaluation, brain imaging and insurance authorization before a first infusion. Eli Lilly, which makes Alzheimer’s drugs and has been expanding access efforts around the disease, is funding the work through an 18-month, $600,000 grant, according to Vanderbilt and a Newswise repost of the announcement. (news-medical.net) ### Where exactly does the AI sit in the care pathway? The Vanderbilt project places the AI agent inside the health system’s EHR rather than using it as a standalone diagnostic product. As a clinician enters a referral for cognitive concern, the system is intended to pull together relevant chart history, flag information that would otherwise slow review and recommend how urgently the case should move forward, Vanderbilt said. (news.vumc.org) Clinicians will keep control over the decision. Vanderbilt said doctors can accept, edit or override every recommendation the tool makes, a design choice that keeps the software tied to workflow support rather than autonomous decision-making. ### Why is referral speed such a problem in Alzheimer’s care? New monoclonal antibody treatments for amyloid-positive Alzheimer’s patients have added steps to an already complex process. (news.vumc.org) Vanderbilt said eligible patients often wait weeks while referrals, neurology review, imaging and payer requirements are completed before treatment begins. Eli Lilly has also been working on access channels beyond hospital systems. (newswise.com) In March 2025, the company said it expanded LillyDirect to connect people in the United States with independent in-person and telehealth providers specializing in Alzheimer’s disease care, describing the move as a way to increase capacity and reduce delays in diagnosis. ### Who is funding it, and why does that matter? Eli Lilly is the grant funder, and Vanderbilt identified the company by name in announcing the project. Lilly is a major Alzheimer’s drug developer, which makes its role in a referral-acceleration project directly relevant to treatment access rather than basic research alone. Vanderbilt did not describe the tool as making broad diagnostic claims. (prnewswire.com) Instead, the health system said the project is focused on referral triage and is being built for transferability to other health systems, suggesting the model is meant to fit into existing clinical operations. ### Is Vanderbilt already using AI in the EHR? Vanderbilt has previously deployed AI tools tied to documentation and record abstraction. (news-medical.net) In August 2025, Vanderbilt Health said clinicians and patients were using DAX Copilot to help document visits in ambulatory clinics and emergency departments, and in late 2025 the system received a $2 million federal grant to expand an AI-powered EHR data extraction tool. (news.vumc.org) That history places the Alzheimer’s referral project inside a broader Vanderbilt effort to embed AI in specific EHR tasks. The new tool, however, is targeted at a defined neurology referral bottleneck rather than note-taking or data extraction. ### What happens next? The grant runs for 18 months, and Vanderbilt said the development work will focus on the referral from primary care or geriatrics to neurology. (news.vumc.org) The health system also said the project is being designed so it can be transferred to other health systems after development. (news.vumc.org)