[ad_1]
The Cleveland Clinic received a $ 2.6 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to develop and validate two automated tools: a risk calculator to identify patients at high risk for cognitive decline and a screening tool to test decline. cognitive.
An interdisciplinary team at the Cleveland Clinic aims to create a low-cost and time-efficient procedure that can be used in primary care settings to identify and select patients at high risk for cognitive decline.
“Doctors are addressing an aging population, and with that comes a higher incidence of dementia,” said Cleveland Clinic neuropsychologist Darlene Floden, Ph.D., who led the multidisciplinary effort to secure the grant. “There is a significant unmet need for a viable way to efficiently screen this large-scale population.”
Although existing tests such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the Mini-Cog are the current standard for screening, there are various challenges that accompany these tools. It can be time-consuming to administer within the time frame of a typical appointment. Additionally, user error with pencil and paper testing has been well documented in published studies.
The team’s five-year research project involves two phases. In the first, researchers will focus on developing and validating a low-cost risk calculator that estimates patients’ likelihood of experiencing cognitive declines over the next five years. They will collaborate with Michael Kattan, Ph.D., president of the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute. The tool uses medical record information, such as health status indicators, demographics, and socioeconomic status, to predict who is at high risk of developing cognitive deficits.
Researchers will also test the longitudinal utility of a patient-administered tool developed by Floden and Robyn Busch, Ph.D. The new tool, called Brief Assessment of Cognitive Health (BACH), is automated with auditory instructions and can be completed by the patient. in the waiting room in about 15 minutes. The tool consists of a complex memory test, a formal depression screen, and a medical history module.
Unlike MoCA, BACH also controls several reversible causes of cognitive decline that provide avenues for treatment – depression, sleep disturbances and stress – as well as detecting cognitive problems. In addition, the BACH is incorporated into the Epic electronic health records platform used by the Cleveland Clinic, so its results are automatically recorded in patient medical records. Researchers will compare BACH with MoCA and neuropsychological tests to determine which is most sensitive to cognitive change over time.
Over the past three years of the project, an implementation trial will be conducted to assess the adoption and usefulness of the risk calculator and BACH in several Cleveland Clinic-affiliated primary care practices.
The approach will be modified throughout this study as we learn how these tools change physician behavior and patient treatment. We will learn what works and what doesn’t and adapt as we go. “
Darlene Floden, Ph.D., Neuropsychologist, Cleveland Clinic
The results will be distributed throughout the process. Additionally, Floden and Busch plan to launch a web version of the BACH soon that people can complete at home. If these tools are validated and doctors find them useful, they hope to offer them to other large medical systems and insurers.
.
[ad_2]
Source link
