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  • Preliminary validation study of the Mindset4Dementia application: assessing remote collection of dementia risk factors and cognitive performance

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Early-stage innovation report
Preliminary validation study of the Mindset4Dementia application: assessing remote collection of dementia risk factors and cognitive performance
  1. Raphael Rifkin-Zybutz1,
  2. Hamzah Selim1,2,
  3. Monika Johal1,3,
  4. Narayan Kuleindiren1,
  5. Itai Palmon1,4,
  6. Aaron Lin1,5,
  7. Yizhou Yu1,
  8. Mohammad Mahmud1,6
  1. 1 Research Division, Mindset Technologies Ltd, London, UK
  2. 2 UCL Medical School, University College London, London, UK
  3. 3 Medical School, Imperial Univeristy, London, UK
  4. 4 University of Michigan Medical School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
  5. 5 Medical School, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
  6. 6 Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Raphael Rifkin-Zybutz, Mindset Technologies Ltd, London WC2A 1LG, UK; rpzrz1{at}gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjinnov-2021-000780

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    Summary box

    What are the new findings?

    • Mindset4Dementia is a smartphone-based application that involves neuropsychological tests in combination with remote history taking via an easy-to-use user interface.

    • Mindset4Dementia can effectively replicate known epidemiological findings suggesting successful remote history gathering and cognitive testing.

    How might it impact on healthcare in the future?

    • Mindset4Dementia offers the possibility of an easy to use, quick and unsupervised screening tool for mild cognitive impairment which can successfully identify dementia risk factors.

    • This preliminary validation facilitates the next step where Mindset4Dementia’s app will be formally assessed in a clinical setting with clinician labels.

    • Mindset4Dementia could become a powerful public health tool in case finding and risk factor reduction.

    Introduction

    115.4 million individuals are projected to live with dementia by 2050.1 Notably, there is consensus that a substantial proportion of dementia cases may be preventable.2 Therefore, identifying individuals exhibiting cognitive impairment in conjunction with dementia risk factors could improve intervention and reduce disease burden.3 Existing smartphone-based assessment tools have demonstrated validity in cognitive screening, however, none combine cognitive screening with risk factor assessment and few have the accessible design necessary for unsupervised use at home.4 5

    Mindset4Dementia is a new smartphone-based application seeking to address this gap by integrating both cognitive screening and risk factor identification. The application can be completed unsupervised at home and takes only 5 min to complete. The user is guided through a conversational interface where risk factors are identified and cognitive screening is assessed via a modified Stroop and Symbol digit modality test.6 7

    Poor performance on the Stroop and Symbol Digit Modalities (SMT) tests is linked with dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI).7–9 Studies suggest that Stroop (among other tests) is able to distinguish between patients with dementia and normal controls.8 9 The SMT is well suited for distinguishing between people with either MCI and dementia versus normal ageing7 and …

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    Footnotes

    • RR-Z and HS are joint first authors.

    • Twitter @iPalmon

    • Contributors RR-Z and NK conducted the data analysis and devised the project. RR-Z, NK and MJ wrote the manuscript. MM, IP, HS and YY reviewed the draft manuscript and provided editorial input. HS devised the idea for the application

    • Funding Funding for this paper was provided by Mindset Technologies Ltd.

    • Competing interests All authors are paid employees of Mindset Technologies Ltd.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.