The website was founded in 1996 by June Kinoshita, funded by an anonymous philanthropic foundation, and launched at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders in Osaka, Japan, The forum brings together a team of specialists in science writing and editing, data curation, information architecture, project management and technology.
The forum acts as an integrator of these diverse sources, linking primary research articles to related news, papers, databases, and discussions .
From 2000 onwards a data-driven dynamic system has been used to automatically search and download PubMed citations into a database, and provide tools for editors to post news and comments and crosslink them to related material.
It is estimated[citation needed] that 30–50% of researchers from a wide range of institutions and countries studying Alzheimer's internationally are registered or active on the site.
The success of Alzforum has resulted in its online disease-specific scientific community framework being cloned in other areas of research into neurological disorders.