Countries around the world are putting citizens on lockdown in an effort to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing is essential for avoiding the novel coronavirus that causes the disease, but other healthcare concerns will not be put on pause during the crisis—in fact, mental health professionals are seeing a jump in calls in recent days. Telemedicine is one way that healthcare providers can continue meeting the needs of patients, while doing their part to limit in-clinic visits that put both you and your patients at risk.
There have never been more options for connecting with patients in their own homes, with many Internet-based communication technologies and healthcare tools to choose from. These tools will help you, as a healthcare provider, to do your part in keeping people out of clinics and hospitals unless absolutely necessary.
Cognitive testing used to require a trained specialist in the same room with the person being assessed, using physical equipment, verbal instructions, and manual scoring sheets to get a report on patient cognition. With the proliferation of personal computer technology and the rise of the Internet, that is no longer necessary—cognitive assessments can be administered to almost anybody, remotely, with no compromise in validity.
The computerized tasks in the Creyos Health platform were originally designed to conduct large-scale studies involving participants from around the globe. Just recently, the world’s largest sleep study used Creyos tasks to assess over 10,000 people in the comfort of their own homes. That amount of data could not have been collected in a laboratory, and it revealed important findings about the relationship between sleep and cognition.
Unsupervised home assessments are as valid as supervised in-person assessments. One recent study using Creyos tasks found that results were no different at home than in a laboratory, and this held true for both healthy participants and a Parkinson’s patient population. Computerized cognitive testing has come a long way, and by following some best practices, practitioners can ensure they continue to collect valuable brain health data from patients who are required to stay home.
Given these recent events, there has been a significant spike in the number of providers who have asked us for guidance regarding how to administer assessments remotely using Creyos Health. If this is an option for you, below you will find several best practices to ensure that you are continuing to collect important cognitive data.
Please note: Our team members are happy to set up a call with you to provide product training on remote assessment capabilities and best practices—simply email us at help@creyos.com to set up a session today, or schedule a time with us that works best for you via the button below:
Another factor to consider is that mental health often suffers in times of crisis. Professionals working in the mental health space may see increased need for their services, and those measuring brain health may directly observe the effects of stress and anxiety on cognitive performance.
Part of the problem with anxiety is that worrying takes up cognitive resources—it’s hard to keep information in memory or inhibit distracting thoughts when anxiety is front and center. In our recent sleep study, individuals who suffer from anxiety performed significantly lower on tasks relying on short-term memory, such as Spatial Span, Token Search, and Paired Associates. Attentional control is also difficult to maintain when anxiety is high, and tasks that require response inhibition, such as Double Trouble, have also been found to suffer when anxiety is high.
Some anxiety is normal and healthy in response to a situation like this. However, patients with existing anxiety disorders, or other mental health conditions such as depression, may find themselves more overwhelmed than usual. Let patients know that disruptions like COVID-19 do affect cognition—anxiety, distraction, and brain fog may interfere with cognitive assessments.
Continuing to keep in touch with healthcare providers remotely is one way to fight these effects and regain control in an overwhelming situation, and it is important for individuals and society as a whole to maintain as much cognitive ability as possible during these types of stressful events.
The effectiveness of telemedicine depends on the specific type of treatment, but it has proven to benefit patient health and cost effectiveness in several areas of healthcare.
The COVID-19 pandemic will further emphasize the benefits of moving some healthcare functions online. Telemedicine has been called a “safety valve for a strained health care system,” experts are recommending virtual doctor visits whenever possible, and the U.S. government has just taken steps to expand Medicare coverage for telehealth.
Web-based cognitive assessments will help you play your part. We at Creyos wish your practice success as we all get through this challenge together, and hope you and your patients avoid its most devastating effects.
As always, let us know if we can help—as mentioned above, our teams are happy to meet with you one on one to review these best practices. To book a time with a Creyos team member, please click here.