$50M gift to establish new brain health center at Hoag

With what is described to be one of the largest donations in the hospital’s history, Hoag announced Monday it will be putting a $50-million gift from philanthropist Richard H. Pickup toward a brain health center.

The center, which will be named after Pickup, will be located in the lower campus of Hoag. Construction is expected to begin in the spring, and the funds will go toward construction of new facilities, expanding and adding new services and programs and staffing.

The center is proposed to focus on a “whole family” approach that will help with prevention, early detection and care for cognitive impairment and mental health disorders, officials said.

“Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects the whole family. When we make a diagnosis, it affects at least two to three other people at a minimum. The tragedy is that the patients don’t always accept it. They continue to want to drive and do things, and it’s about getting the family educated and getting them the resources they need to deal with these behaviors but to do it in a dignified way,” Dr. Aaron Ritter, the director of the Memory & Cognitive Disorders Program at the Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute, said in an interview.

Ritter said the significance of being able to establish the Richard H. Pickup Center for Brain Health is that it allows the hospital to put brain health at the forefront.

“Neurology’s often on its own. It’s not usually integrated with the family and internal medicine structure, so it’s about having the family, the internal medicine and the primary care [teams] together on the same page,” he said. “It’s the idea of ‘Do we need to still do a colonoscopy when they have advanced dementia? Is that the right option?’ or ‘Should we do this orthopedic surgery, but ...’ Hoag has developed into a really comprehensive healthcare system ... that starts with obstetrics all the way to focusing on neurological diseases that affects people later in life.”

Ritter noted that Orange County in particular faces an aging population. The “graying” of the county has been observed for decades and, according to a report by the California Department of Public Health in 2021, those 55 and older with Alzheimer’s will increase by 122%, and people 65 and older with the disease will increase by 136% in Orange County by 2040.

“We know people are living longer because we’re making so many advances in other fields but haven’t really been doing that in neurology and dementia in specific,” Ritter said. “Orange County has an aging population, and we’re starting to see some breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s. By putting this at the forefront with the resources, we can respond proactively. A gift like this makes that possible.”

In a statement announcing the gift, Hoag confirmed the donation was in part influenced by Pickup’s familial health history. His brother lived with dementia until his passing. Pickup also donated $15 million to the hospital for the Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute in 2017.

“Hoag is making great strides in the understanding of brain health and Alzheimer’s disease. They are on the cutting edge, but there is still so much that is unknown about the brain,” Pickup said in the announcement. “I trust that the passionate experts at Hoag will advance this area of medicine and give people, beyond Orange County, a place they can turn to and trust.”