Mindmore is transforming neurocognitive care with technology

Discover how Mindmore is making neurocognitive care and screening more efficient and more reliable.

By digitising traditional paper and pencil-based tests, Mindmore’s unique technology helps to detect diseases earlier, reduce patient waiting times and decrease healthcare costs, making revolutionary changes in the world of neurocognitive care.

Cognitive testing is a standard routine in primary and secondary care to detect cognitive impairment. But today’s tests in healthcare are analogue, meaning that test administration, scoring and analysis are manual – paper and pen based. This analogue process takes time from staff and professions which are lacking in clinics, such as psychologists, occupational therapists, doctors and nurses.

The current cognitive testing method’s resource-heavy process leads to longer waiting times for patients during which diseases and disorders develop into more advanced stages prior to diagnosis.

Mindmore creates equal care opportunities

When the test process is analogue and led by a test leader, there is a risk of bias as test staff intervene and assist; consequently, the results of today’s tests depend heavily on who administers them. This decreases their reliability, making it difficult to monitor patients’ cognitive progression over time.

With Mindmore’s digital cognitive testing platform, the testing method is standardised and independent of a test leader; hence, patients’ results can be monitored over time since the process is always the same.

Mindmore transforms specialist tasks into administrative tasks, with the aim of making cognitive testing available and easily accessible globally

The cognitive tests used in Mindmore’s digital cognitive testing battery are common tests used in clinics and research. For example:

• Rey Auditory Verbal Learning tests (Rey A (1964). L’examen clinique en psychologie [Clinical tests in psychology]. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France)
• Corsi Block Tapping test (Corsi PM (1972). ‘Human memory and the medial temporal region of the brain’ (PhD). McGill University)
• Trailmaking A and B test (Army Individual Test Battery (1944). ‘Manual of Directions and Scoring’. Washington, 331, DC: War Department, Adjutant General’s Office).

Some of the cognitive domains measured are executive functions, attention, processing speed, language, memory, and learning. On Mindmore’s testing platform, the traditionally used tests are automatically corrected, and results are compared to norms and analysed using the newest research and findings in cognitive research. This transforms a specialist task into an administrative task as less trained staff can oversee the testing process, decreasing costs for the caregiver.

A self-administered testing method

The clinician chooses which symptomology they want to test for and then the tablet is given to the patient, who can do the test independently, without any instructions or support from the clinician or administrative staff.

This frees up staff’s time and allows clinics to increase their capacity for cognitive testing. The clinics using Mindmore’s tool have been able to triple the number of cognitive tests they execute daily.

“With Mindmore’s testing methods we can increase the number of patients we can cognitively evaluate every day, from 2-3 patients daily to up to nine patients. And clinicians spend much less time executing tasks for which we do not receive reimbursement and/or payment.”

Compared with traditional tests, Mindmore decreases testing time for the clinician from 60-120 minutes to zero as the test is self-administered. Furthermore, the subsequent 30-60 minutes of manual analysis is eliminated since Mindmore automatically performs both testing and subsequent analysis of results directly in the app on the tablet. This increases income for the caregiver as more patients can be tested with existing resources. But it does not increase the caregiver’s costs, besides paying to subscribe to Mindmore’s testing platform. Furthermore, from a patient perspective the testing method is experienced as less intrusive compared to a paper-pencil-test with a test leader.

Shorter waiting times for assessments and faster results reduce worry

With the increased capacity for cognitive testing, waiting times for assessments will drastically decrease. Once patients have taken the test, the results are immediate, decreasing the amount of time patients spend worrying over results.

The results can be presented and viewed in different ways to facilitate easy understanding for whomever is viewing the data.

Increased patient security

When cognitive testing can be done early in the healthcare chain, important health data belonging to the patient can also be included in the diagnosis and treatment of the patient, data which otherwise may not have been available to the clinicians because of a lack of resources.

The resulting cognitive profile provides clinicians with additional information on the patient’s cognitive state, thus allowing professionals in the field to design a more specific assessment or intervention oriented to the patient’s needs. Patients without impairments receive a baseline value so that physicians and psychologists can follow patients’ cognitive progression over time and act quickly upon detection of neurocognitive changes.

With the shorter waiting and assessment times, diseases are detected earlier, allowing for earlier intervention and more efficient and less costly treatment. The objective and quantified results also facilitate communication for doctors with authorities and employers for burnout patients.

Decreased costs for the entire healthcare system

As fewer numbers of patients are referred to specialist care thanks to efficient filtering at primary care, costs are decreased for the entire healthcare system.

Furthermore, this enables more equal healthcare as all patients can be tested and assessed in the same unbiased way.

Cognitive tests used by 92% when diagnosing dementia across Europe

European healthcare systems are today faced with new challenges regarding neurocognitive diseases. The elderly population is growing, and people aged over 60 will increase by approximately two million per annum in the coming decades, eventually coming to represent around 30% of the total European population in 2060.

Given the prevalence of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive impairments in the elderly population (50% of 90-year-olds have some sort of dementia diagnosis, and, from age 65, the risk of getting dementia doubles every five years), neurocognitive diseases will in the future pose one of Europe’s major public health challenges.

To meet this threat, European healthcare systems need to invest in screening tools that allow for quick, efficient, convenient and reliable neurocognitive assessment since today’s screening methods are highly unlikely to be able to meet the demands of the future.

Measures of cognitive function are an important support when returning to work after burnout and depression

Stress-related diseases and other mental illnesses have become an increased health problem for 30-65-year-old patients, and mental illness is generally seen as a growing public health concern.

In Sweden, overall cases of illness increased by 98,000 between 2010 and 2015, with mental illness diagnoses accounting for 59% of the rise. Mental illness is a disorder that affect your mood, thinking and behaviour.

New possibilities

In addition to reduced time, the Mindmore app offers new possibilities that go beyond today’s screening methods:

1. With increased access to screening, patients can be tested earlier in the healthcare chain, allowing for earlier detection
2. Acquisition of baseline values allows clinicians to follow the progression of patients’ memory and cognition for the purpose of detecting diseases earlier
3. Clinicians can choose to solely observe the patient when taking the test to collect qualitative information about the patient.

Mindmore
www.mindmore.com

Please note, this article will appear in issue 9 of Health Europa Quarterly, which is available to read now.