Clive Ballard
Clive Ballard (born August 1964) is a British, world-leading expert in dementia. He is currently Professor of Age-Related Diseases at the University of Exeter and Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the University of Exeter Medical School. Clive specialises in treatment of dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson's disease, the harms of antipsychotic medications in people with dementia, the benefits of non-pharmacological treatments for the management of agitation in people with dementia and the prevention of dementia, including the development of the PROTECT programme of online interventions as a tool for maintaining cognitive  health in later life. He has published more than 600 scientific papers and has an H index over 115, with more than 55,000 citations for his work. Early life and education. Clive Ballard was born in August 1964 in Wales, before studying Medicine at the University of Leicester in 1987. He then studied psychiatry at the University of Birmingham in 1991 MD in neuropsychiatric symptoms in people with dementia, then moving on to specialise in the psychiatry of older adults. He moved to Newcastle in 1995 as an MRC Clinical Fellow and Senior Lecturer, joining the dementia with Lewy Bodies  research group. Career and scholarly positions. In 2003, Ballard moved to the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London as Professor of Age-Related Diseases. Here, he directed the National Institute for Health Research and Biomedical Research Unit for Dementia, and co-directed the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases. From 2003 until 2013, Clive was also Director of Research at Alzheimer's Society, and played a key role in the successful campaign to overturn a decision made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, making anti-dementia drugs available for people with dementia. During this time , Clive published more than 200 research papers. These included key clinical trial focusing on the treatment of dementia with Lewy Bodies, dementia in people with Down's syndrome, vascular dementia, and neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia. In November 2016, Clive joined the University of Exeter Medical School as Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Medical School. Scientific impact and recognition. Agitation in people with Alzheimer’s disease. In 2006, Ballard was involved in the development of a non-pharmacological training investigation to improve person-centred care for people with dementia in nursing homes. The investigation led to a 50 % reduction in antipsychotic use, without worsening neuropsychiatric symptoms. In partnership with the Alzheimer's Society, this was developed into an intervention manual and has been implemented in 500 care homes across the UK. Opportunities for dementia prevention. Ballard, working with The Lancet, was involved in the identification of the most important targets for dementia prevention interventions. This group also developed an online platform to enable the conduct of large randomized controlled trials of potential prevention interventions. With the MRC, Alzheimer's Society and BBC, Ballard conducted parallel trials in the UK to promote cognitive health in adults over the age  of 50. He was also heavily involved in the development of the PROTECT platform in the UK, an online cohort study, adopted as part of Dementia Platform UK. The platform conducts nested clinical trials and offers evidence based training to all participants. PROTECT has more than 25,000 UK participants, and has now been launched in the USA.