The Administrative Core (AC) serves as the central coordinating center that manages and integrates the multiple program activities carried out at the ADCS and co-located facilities, and is necessary to maintain smooth operation of this complex grant program. Because the AC activities integrate with the activities of each of the other ADCS cores and committees it results in a multi-faceted approach that lends itself to communication and information sharing among all cores. The primary objective of the AC is to provide overall direction and oversight to the ADCS by working closely with its various cores and committees to accomplish program goals. The ADCS is a large, complex organization, with over 100 members at UCSD, 8 cores, 35 primary performance sites, dozens of additional sites, multiple ongoing trials, collaborations with multiple companies, and contracts with many vendors. It is primarily an academic organization, but performs all of the activities required by multicenter trials, with an in-house data management system, biostatistics, clinical operations, regulatory oversight, medical and safety management, and onsite and remote clinical monitoring. Smooth operation requires, in addition to experience and expertise, efficient and effective management, standard operating procedures and quality assurance programs, and effective communications. The standing committees, which exist throughout the grant period, contribute to all grant activities. The Committees budgeted within the Administrative Core are the Internal Ethics Committee, the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Committee, and the Instrument Committee with its five subcommittees.

There is no greater health care need than the development of effective therapy for AD. With aging baby-boomers now at the age of risk for AD, the epidemic will accelerate. The ADCS maintains an optimized infrastructure to support its trials, as well as trials and longitudinal studies funded by other grants, and to facilitate sharing of data, specimens and methods.