An iPad application that can track and monitor cognitive function was released at the recent Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto by Quest Diagnostics, the giant diagnostic information services provider which generated revenue of $7.5 billion last year.
The app, called CogniSense, can be integrated into a patient’s electronic health record and be used along with laboratory and imaging testing to detect and diagnose dementia.
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Primary PartnerCare, a Long Island-based accountable care organization, piloted CogniSense with some 300 patients.
The pilot began with just a handful of doctors, but was broadened beyond primary care when it was found to be easy to use and capable of producing valuable information—especially to “downstream” physicians, Dr. Edward Ginns, Quest’s medical director of neurology, said in an interview.
While piloted mostly with primary care doctors, Ginns said the app is suitable for any healthcare setting where there is a need to assess cognitive function.
“Clearly, the earlier we intervene with neurological disease, the better,” Ginns said.
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Ginns, whose practice and research focuses on inherited disorders of the nervous system, said test development is part of his work. He described how CogniSense is a digital version of the Memory Orientation Screening Test, or MOST, which was developed and validated in 2010 and measures three-word recall, orientation (or awareness of year, season, date and day), sequence memory (such as 12-item grocery list) and awareness of time.
An assessment of MOST, published in the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias, discussed the nonexistence of an easy-to-use cognitive-function test that could be included in an annual wellness visit.
“Physicians rarely measure, are aware of, or fail to document cognitive decline until significant and often irreversible losses have occurred,” according to the assessment published in the journal. “Complicating timely identification of dementia is patient denial or anosognosia (unwareness); limited family reports of functional change; complexity, and insensitivity of current screening tests.”
Dr. Henry Jacob, CMO for Primary PartnerCare, said the app has been well-received by both the ACO’s physicians and patients, and who believed CogniSense reduced referrals to specialists.
“Effective digital tools for the assessment of patients at risk for dementia are essential for an ACO,” Jacob said in a news release.
Images: Quest Diagnostics
