Brain Health Registry

What Brain Health Registry does

Brain Health Registry (BHR) is a web-based, observational research registry operated as a non-profit academic initiative of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), founded around 2014 by Michael Weiner, MD and currently led by Principal Investigator Rachel Nosheny, PhD. The platform recruits adult volunteers to enroll online, complete web-based questionnaires on medical history and lifestyle, take computerized cognitive tests, and return approximately every six months for longitudinal monitoring of cognitive change. A Study Partner Portal enables friends, family, or spouses to provide dyadic data on each participant, which is unusual for online registries and is used to support neurodegenerative disease research, particularly Alzheimer's.

The technical core is a web-based participant platform integrated with investigator-facing collaboration tools (De-Identified Data Sharing under Data Use Agreements, Co-Enrollment Programs, Comprehensive Referrals, and Direct-to-Site Referrals) and a currently-unavailable Software-as-a-Service offering. Specialized sub-brands include CEDAR, a culturally tailored study for Black/African American adults, and CAL-BHR, a Spanish-language initiative funded by the California Department of Public Health. Machine-learning approaches (including random forests) have been published for predicting amyloid status from self-report data, supporting more targeted recruitment into amyloid-imaging and treatment trials.

BHR is funded primarily through research grants (NIH, California Department of Public Health) and UCSF-administered charitable donations; it does not generate commercial revenue, has no disclosed pricing, and is not investor-backed. The registry has reached over 100,000 participants, is cited across 49+ peer-reviewed publications, and serves neuroscience researchers, Alzheimer's investigators, and clinical trial sponsors who need pre-qualified, longitudinally characterized, and demographically diverse participants.

Name

Brain Health Registry

Legal name

Brain Health Registry (UCSF Brain Health Registry)

Website

https://brainhealthregistry.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Brain Health Registry is a UCSF-operated, web-based longitudinal research registry that enrolls adult volunteers for online cognitive testing and health questionnaires, serving neuroscience researchers and clinical trial sponsors seeking pre-qualified, diverse participants for Alzheimer's and brain disorder studies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Research Grants and Funding: Primary funding from government research grants including NIH funding and California Department of Public Health funding for initiatives like the California Latino Brain Health Registry
2. Donations: The registry accepts charitable donations through UCSF's donation system to support operations and research activities

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Brain Health Registry operates a web-based observational research platform where adult volunteers enroll online, complete health and lifestyle questionnaires, take computerized cognitive tests, and return every six months for longitudinal monitoring related to Alzheimer's disease and other brain disorders. The platform includes a dedicated Study Partner Portal for dyadic data collection from friends or family, and provides academic and industry researchers with access to pre-screened participant pools through de-identified data sharing, co-enrollment, and referral collaborations overseen by the UCSF IRB.

Product overview

The Brain Health Registry is a web-based, observational research study and online platform led by UCSF faculty. Its core offering is the BHR Participant Platform, where adult volunteers enroll and undergo longitudinal monitoring via online questionnaires and cognitive tests. This core platform integrates two key sub-modules: the Study Partner Portal (enabling dyadic data collection from a study partner) and investigator-facing collaboration tools (De-Identified Data Sharing, Co-Enrollment Programs, Referral Programs, and an unavailable SaaS Program). Specialized sub-brands include the Community-Engaged Digital Alzheimer's Research (CEDAR) study targeting Black/African American participants and the California Latino Brain Health Registry (CAL-BHR) initiative with a full Spanish-language platform. Together, the platform aims to accelerate clinical trials by providing a large pre-screened pool of participants for neuroscience and Alzheimer's disease research.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CEDAR (Community-Engaged Digital Alzheimer's Research): A sub-study focused on understanding why Alzheimer's and dementia disproportionately affect Black/African American adults through culturally informed research methods.
• CAL-BHR (California Latino Brain Health Registry)

Products and services

• Brain Health Registry (BHR) Participant Platform Primary web-based research registry platform where adult volunteers enroll, complete online questionnaires about medical history and lifestyle, take computerized cognitive tests (online brain games), and return every six months for longitudinal monitoring of brain health.
• Brain Health Registry Study Partner Portal Dedicated portal where study partners (friends, family members, or spouses of participants) register, answer questionnaires about the participant's brain health and daily functioning, and report on their own health and caregiving experience, enabling dyadic data collection.
• Community-Engaged Digital Alzheimer's Research (CEDAR) Sub-study within Brain Health Registry focused on understanding and addressing why Alzheimer's and dementia disproportionately affect Black/African American adults, featuring Community Science Partnership Boards, culturally tailored outreach, and a $100 participant incentive; conducted under both UCSF and collaborator IRBs.
• California Latino Brain Health Registry (CAL-BHR) Initiative funded by the California Department of Public Health aimed at recruiting older Latino individuals into brain health research through a fully Spanish-language version of the BHR platform, study tasks, and participant communications.

Quantifiable outcome

• Faster Clinical Trials - Registry pre-screened pool can take years off trial duration
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability3 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• UCSF (University of California, San Francisco)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Brain Health Registry is led by faculty at UCSF and overseen by the UCSF Institutional Review Board. The principal investigator and co-investigators are UCSF faculty members. UCSF provides institutional support and infrastructure.
• ADNI (Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Brain Health Registry collaborates closely with ADNI, sharing research methodologies and data. The BHR founder Michael Weiner is also the Principal Investigator of ADNI.
• Alzheimer's AssociationmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrong collaborative relationship including diversity initiatives, awards for BHR leadership, and shared mission to improve representation in Alzheimer's research.
• Global Alzheimer's PlatformminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFeatured partnership for clinical trial recruitment and research collaboration in Alzheimer's disease treatment development.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Alzheimer's Association: National voluntary health organization that funds Alzheimer's research, runs TrialMatch, and honors BHR leadership; an ecosystem partner that overlaps in mission and recruitment channels.

Direct peers

• Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI): NIH-funded longitudinal Alzheimer's research program; shares founder Michael Weiner and collaborates directly with BHR on data and methodology, making it the most direct operational and scientific peer.
• ResearchMatch: NIH-funded national volunteer registry that connects researchers with willing study participants; functionally similar online recruitment-and-matching model for clinical research.
• Fox Insight (Michael J. Fox Foundation): Online longitudinal Parkinson's disease research registry with self-reported outcomes; BHR cites Parkinson's as a focus area, making Fox Insight the closest disease-specific parallel in Parkinson's.
• Alzheimer's Prevention Registry (Banner Alzheimer's Institute): Registry recruiting volunteers for Alzheimer's prevention trials, including the Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative (API) studies; competes for the same pre-screened volunteer pool that BHR serves.
• Global Alzheimer's Platform (GAP): Non-profit focused on accelerating Alzheimer's clinical trials through standing trial-ready cohorts; BHR lists GAP as a featured partnership, making it a directly comparable registry/recruitment peer.
• Banner Alzheimer's Institute: Stand-alone Alzheimer's research and trial-site operator that runs the Alzheimer's Prevention Registry and major AD trials; directly comparable mission and trial-recruitment infrastructure.

Broad incumbents

• All of Us Research Program (NIH): Massive NIH longitudinal cohort program collecting health data from one million+ participants; competes for the same broad research-volunteer audience and is a much larger, federally backed incumbent registry.
• UK Biobank: Large-scale prospective biomedical cohort with deep phenotyping and data access for researchers worldwide; a benchmark large-scale research registry that BHR is structurally comparable to.
• ClinicalTrials.gov: NIH-run federal registry of clinical trials; BHR refers participants to trials listed here and serves a complementary (rather than competing) role in pre-screening candidates.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/BrainHealthReg
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/BrainHealthRegistry
• Facebookfacebook.com/BrainHealthRegistry

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Brain Health Registry